Stars & Stripes (partially completed)

Here are the before and after photos of "Stars & Stripes". This pattern was designed by Terry Ross and is being shared with members of the Bag-A-Holic yahoo group of which I am a member.

The larger bag was made according to pattern directions, doubled yarn. The smaller bag was made with smaller needles and the yarn was not doubled. I think it will make a nice coin/make-up purse to go in the larger bag...I may even attempt a lining and zipper. It's a darn good thing that this purse was felted, because the pattern called for a crochet edge...I CAN NOT crochet..however, I don't think I did such a bad job at the attempt to do a single crochet edge. I'm so glad I caught an episode of Knitty Gritty where someone was putting a crochet edge on a pillow...from watching that I figured out how to hold the yarn and the hook, and how many times to pull the yarn through. It worked.

You'll see a bit of the white showing through the red on the edges....I carried my yarn up the side as I knit when I changed colors...it isn't too obvious after the bag was felted, but I'm wondering how to correct this for a future project.

In the second photo I have some of the supplies that I will be using to embellish the bag. I think I will put the white star buttons on the small bag, and then attempt to make some polymer clay stars for the larger bag (as per Terry's instructions). Terry said 'it's easy', so if it's true, I've learned 2 things this week...simple crochet edge and how to handle polymer! Thanks Terry! Terry used a tieback cord for her handle, but I wasn't able to find anything suitable in craft world (my upstairs office), however I did find some long red shoelaces that match perfectly color-wise, so I may braid them for the handle...hope to post the finished photos in a few days!

Happy Fourth of July!