A Brilliant, Easy Way to Add a Liner to a Knit Purse

I love to knit bags, but one of the problems with them is that knitting has holes that things will naturally try to get through in order to escape your bag.

For this reason I love to felt knit bags, but you don’t always want a felted look. You also don’t always want to have to pull out the sewing machine to sew a liner to sew into your bag by hand.

The Underground Crafter has a great tutorial for making a lining for a knit or crocheted bag using duct tape. It’s actually pretty easy to do and you can make it any size or shape you want.

And while we’re on the subject of bags, check out this great roundup of adorable, tiny bag knitting patterns from In the Loop Knitting. So cute!

Do you knit bags? How do you line them?

[Photo via the Underground Crafter.]

It’s a common complaint among women and femme dressing folk that our clothes do not include enough (and enough useful) pockets. And even if your clothes do have good pockets, there’s always a chance that you’d rather have another pocket to put some essentials in rather than having to carry a whole bag.

But because we are knitters, we can take this problem into our own needles and knit ourselves some auxiliary pockets.

Beatrice Mase did just that, with a kind of fancy toolbelt pocket accessory that they call VELVET Pockets.

The stitch pattern has a plush, sort of velvet effect, thus the name, but it’s worked with regular fingering/sock weight yarn. (The sample uses wool, but you could experiment with other fibers, too.) It calls for 776 yards of 710 meters, which you might just have in your sock yarn stash.

The pattern includes several pockets of different sizes, with the main body of the pocket worked flat in one piece and the exterior pockets sewn on at the end. You also have the option of adding screw rivets and a coordinating clasp that make it look even more toolbelt chic.

The design is worked with a loop of knit fabric at the top so it can slide onto a belt. The pattern includes explanatory diagrams, photo and video tutorials and is adjustable to fit different sizes of belts.

It’s almost enough to make me want to start wearing belts again, even though I haven’t for years. Because who wouldn’t want a few extra little pockets to hold things when you don’t have enough to really justify carrying a bag around?

The pattern is available in English and French on Ravelry and you can also buy a kit complete with the yarn, rivets and clasp (the pattern is not included in the kit) direct on Etsy.

[Photo: Beatrice Mase]

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