This is a crochet pattern review of the Crochet Drawstring Bag and Crochet Zipper Pouch designed by April Garwood for Banana Moon Studio. Plus a review of Red Heart All in One Granny Square yarn. Review done by Kami Jones for Cre8tion Crochet.
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Find the crochet pattern review below, or click here for the free Drawstring Bag pattern or here for the free Zipper Pouch pattern! You can also purchase an ad-free version of the Drawstring Bag Pattern and the Zipper Pouch Pattern on Etsy.
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Earlier this year I finally bought some of the Red Heart All in One Granny Square yarn. After reading a lot of mixed reviews, I wanted to give it a try and see how it worked out for me. Having granny squares with fewer ends is a definite draw. I chose two patterns to try this yarn on knowing that I would have to adapt the patterns a little to use this yarn. I went with the Crochet Drawstring Bag and Crochet Zipper Pouch, both by Banana Moon Studio. Both of these patterns feature four round squares and the yarn is designed for five. See pattern notes below for how I adapted these patterns to work with the yarn. Additionally you can find a review of the yarn in the Material Notes below.
What Materials Do You Need to Crochet a Drawstring Bag and Zipper Pouch?
- Red Heart All in One Granny Square Yarn in Pop Culture – I used 67 yards for the Crochet Drawstring Bag and 124 yards for the Crochet Zipper Pouch
- I9/5.5mm Crochet Hook
- Scissors
- Tapestry Needle
- Optional: Fabric for Lining Bag
- Optional: Zipper for Zipper Pouch
- Crochet Drawstring Bag, Free Crochet Pattern from Banana Moon Studio
- Crochet Zipper Pouch, Free Crochet Pattern from Banana Moon Studio
Material Notes:
Red Heart All in One Granny Square yarn is designed to make granny squares without all the extra ends. For these squares to be made with different colors of yarn, you would have 10 ends to weave. However, this yarn cuts that back to just two ends and who wouldn’t appreciate that? It does comes at the cost of having to adjust your stitches to get the color changes to happen in the right place. Having to undo your hard work multiple times is just as unfun as having to weave ends. Fortunately this yarn worked well with my tension. After making several adjustments on the first two rounds the other three worked out pretty well.
One issue I had was that there wasn’t much left of the fifth color when I finished so some of my tails are quite short. I probably could have redone the row using tighter tension or a smaller hook to reduce this problem. Another issue I noticed in my skein was muddying of the colors. Because my colors are all pretty dark it wasn’t super noticeable. But if you choose one of the lighter colorways this might be a bigger issue.
My biggest issue is that you can’t really use this yarn to attach your squares or make any kind of border without unpredictable color changes. Therefore you have to buy yarn in a coordinating color for that. Yarnspirations does provide a list of coordinating colors. They state that the colors blend but don’t necessarily match. Because I wouldn’t need a lot of yarn for attaching and adding borders, it just doesn’t make sense to buy a whole skein for this purpose. It would be nice if some yarn was included, maybe sort of like a sock set. See pattern notes below to find out how I used this same yarn to finish my projects.
Given the opportunity I would probably use this yarn again. Maybe the benefits would be more noticeable on a larger project.
If you want to add a zipper to the zipper pouch, you will want to have one that is 9 inches long.
How Long Does it Take to Crochet a Drawstring Bag and Zipper Pouch?
Each granny square took between 15 and 20 minutes to make. The first one may have taken a little longer. To complete the Crochet Drawstring Bag was around an hour. Completing the Crochet Zipper Pouch took about an hour and a half. However I didn’t line my bag or add a zipper.
What Size is a Crocheted Drawstring Bag and Zipper Pouch?
My Crochet Drawstring Bag measures 5.5 inches wide and 7 inches tall. My Crochet Zipper Pouch measures 12 inches wide and 6 inches tall.
Gauge:
My five round granny squares are approximately 6 inches square. My four round granny squares are approximately 5 inches square; 5.5 inches if you include the single crochet border.
All About Crocheting a Drawstring Bag and Zipper Pouch:
For the drawstring pouch I did the four round granny square as indicated in the pattern. Then I added a single crochet border around each square making a single crochet, chain, single crochet in each corner. Next I cut the remaining black for the square as a really long end, repeating for both squares. Using one of the tails I seamed my two squares together. Finally I used the other tail to start the top of the bag. Because I had the single crochet border on my square I skipped round two. To complete the top of my bag I used the remaining black tail from seaming the squares and I pulled an additional squares worth of yarn from the skein. I used the fourth color to make the drawstring. I absolutely love how this little drawstring pouch turned out.
For my zipper pouch, I crocheted all five rounds of the granny square. Instead of seaming as indicated in the pattern I used the little bit of black that I had left from the pouch to sew the squares together. Next for the edging I used the first three colors that I had pulled from the skein. With right sides facing, starting with the third color I single crocheted around the top of both pieces connecting them together. Then holding both pieces together I continued through both pieces around both sides and the bottom. I am not completely sold on how my zipper pouch turned out because of the color changes on the sides.
Overall I enjoyed making both patterns. These patterns are well written and easy to adapt to suit your needs.
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