Snow Day Project

We FINALLY had a Snow Day, y'all!  It only took us until mid-March, but who cares?  I got a free day at home with my boys :)  I always feel obligated to get a little something productive done on a Snow Day, as any mom does, so I did my laundry.  And I mean ALL of my laundry - seriously, I had ZERO dirty clothes by dinner time.  Of course, that lasted all of 30 minutes, until I changed my boys into their jammies, but... it was nice to be all caught up for once!  The main benefit of choosing laundry as my chore for the day is that it leaves a lot of time free to really enjoy myself - I spent my time in between mommying to complete a crochet project I've been excited about for a few weeks :)

I pinned an awesome "C2C Tote Bag" idea a long time ago, and I've been itching to try it ever since.  When I was organizing my yarn stash a few weeks ago, I noticed I had a large enough amount of a nice heather grey available, that I could try this out.  If you've never tried Corner To Corner (C2C) crocheting before, I highly suggest it!  It's nothing but hdc stitches, worked in blocks of three, creating a diagonally striped product.  I've used it before, like for my younger son's baby blanket.

(yeah, I couldn't resist this adorable newborn pic... Hi, Baby L)

So, for this project, I created a long rectangle of C2C.  You can make it any size you want, as long as the length is exactly three times the width.  So, for example, mine is 12" wide and 36" long.  Once that was done, I crocheted sc all around the edges, to give it a nice, finished look, and to make sewing it up easier:

Turning your rectangle into a bag just takes a little bit of fancy folding, but once you try it, I swear it's way simpler than it looks!  

You just sew up the seams (I like the ridge showing, but you could do an invisible seam, if you prefer.) on both sides, and the pouch portion of a tote is done!  I made a strap out of the same C2C stitch (sorry, I forgot to take a picture) and sewed it onto the bag.  Then, I added a bright pop of color around the edge of the bag, to make it one cohesive product.

I'm pretty sure this is my most favorite thing I've ever crocheted - it looks so clean, crisp, and (almost) professionally made, and it was super easy!  I've already started another one, experimenting with the size of the rectangle to make smaller (or bigger!) bags, and trying a different crochet stitch.  The possibilities are endless!