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Crochet drawstring backpack: a bag with cords for straps

Chain 44 and work single crochet round both sides of it, then 57 rounds even. Add an eyelet round, 2 more rounds and a tab at each bottom corner, then thread two chain cords and knot them to the tabs.

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A bag in rounds with drawcord strapsUS termsHook: 5 mm (US H-8), or the size that gives you gaugeSize from your washed swatchworsted yarn

Know these stitches: chain, single crochet, double crochet, slip stitch

The finished drawstring backpack.

Materials and yarn planning

Yarns we’ve reviewed that suit it: Knit Picks Dishie Cone yarn, Lion Brand 24/7 Cotton worsted yarn, Paintbox Yarns Cotton Aran. For the hook, choose by size and handle.

Yarn estimate: the 5,426 stitches of the bag and the tabs at about 4 cm of medium yarn each come to about 220 m, and the two cords about 25 m more. Buy about 280 m, for example two balls of 150 m.

This pattern has about 5,426 stitches in the bag and the tabs, not counting the cords. For a closer figure in your own yarn, weigh what you have made once a good part is done, divide by the stitches made so far, multiply by 5,426 and divide by the ball weight on the label. Taller stitches use more yarn than short ones, so allow a margin.

Finished size and gauge

At 14 single crochets and 16 rounds per 10 cm, the chain of 44 makes the bag about 31 cm wide, and its 61 rounds about 38 cm tall. For a smaller bag, start with a shorter chain, keeping an even number so the eyelets come out even, and work fewer rounds. Each cord goes once round the top, about 63 cm, and both its ends run down to a tab as one strap: 190 cm leaves a strap of about 60 cm and the knot. For a child, make the cords about 150 cm. These are calculations from the counts, not a measured sample.

The gauge calculator compares your swatch with the pattern. A stitch name you do not know is in the abbreviation chart; a UK pattern’s names are in the US/UK term reference.

The pattern

Count rows for this pattern

Bag

  1. Chain 44. Round 1: single crochet in the second chain from the hook and in the next 41 chains, 3 single crochets in the last chain, then, along the other side of the chain, single crochet in the next 41 chains and 2 single crochets in the last one, beside the first stitch. Join with a slip stitch to the first single crochet: 88 stitches.
  2. Rounds 2–58: chain 1, single crochet in each stitch, join (88 stitches). The bag lies flat with a fold at each end of the chain; keep the joins at one fold.
  3. Round 59, the eyelets: chain 4 (it counts as a double crochet and a chain), skip the next stitch, [double crochet in the next stitch, chain 1, skip the next stitch] 43 times, join with a slip stitch to the third of the 4 chains: 44 eyelets, 88 stitches.
  4. Rounds 60–61: chain 1, single crochet in each double crochet and in each chain space, join (88 stitches). Fasten off.

Tabs

  1. Join the yarn at one bottom corner, in a stitch of Round 1 at the end of the chain. Chain 12, slip stitch in the same stitch, then work 16 single crochets over the chain loop and slip stitch to the first. Fasten off.
  2. Make a second tab the same way at the other bottom corner.

Cords and straps

  1. Make 2 cords: chain until the chain measures about 190 cm, then slip stitch in the back bump of the second chain from the hook and of each chain back to the start. Fasten off and knot each end.
  2. Lay the bag flat. Thread one cord in and out of the eyelets, starting at the right fold and going all the way round, so both its ends come out through the two eyelets beside that fold. Thread the second cord the same way from the left fold.
  3. Pass both ends of the right cord through the right tab, and both ends of the left cord through the left tab. Try the bag on, pull the cords to close the top, and knot each pair on its tab where the bag sits between your shoulder blades. Trim the ends 5 cm past the knots.

Check the work

Round 1 is 42 + 3 + 41 + 2 = 88. The eyelet round uses all 88 for 44 double crochets and 44 chains; 44 is even, so each cord comes out through two eyelets side by side, outside the bag.

Stitches in Round 1, the eyelet round and the top round88 · 88 · 88
  • If the bag twists as it grows, the joins have drifted: start every round in the first stitch, at the fold.
  • If the straps dig into your shoulders, make each cord from two strands held together.
  • If a bottom corner pulls out of shape, sew the tab down along the fold for 1 cm.

Updated . Stitch counts checked row by row; we haven’t crocheted a sample of this one yet. How the patterns are checked. Keep your yarn label, hook and swatch on the printable project worksheet.

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