Star Stitch Pouch (All About Ami) + Lion Brand 24/7 Cotton in Taupe

This crochet project took a long time.... I began around October or November 2021 (IG post) and worked at a fairly leisurely pace until I ran out of yarn, which I'd only replenished last month.

When it comes to crochet, I've mostly made amigurumi. Well, and a set of fruit coasters for friends (posted here), at the start of my crochet journey. But this project is my first crochet bag — or pouch, or clutch. And it's for my bestie!

This crochet pouch is based on the free star stitch pouch pattern by All About Ami, specifically, the flat-based pouch. But with some small changes because I made the base larger. So it's more of a clutch bag than a pouch. The wrist strap is made up of rows of single crochet stitches, which I crocheted directly into one corner of the bag, after attaching the lining and zipper.

Star stitch clutch bag (IG)

The star stitch pouch pattern is great for practising the star stitch. The star stitch is also known as the marguerite stitch or daisy stitch. Probably in reference to the marguerite (ox-eye daisy), though I'm not sure if there is a resemblance. Whatever the case, I like the star stitch a lot. It is a beautiful, textured stitch, and as an advanced crochet stitch, it is a stitch to try if you're looking to level-up in your crochet journey. I guess this clutch bag marks another crochet landmark in my crochet journey.

But golly, the star stitch is a huge yarn eater. For this project, I used a 4mm hook, and 1 star stitch itself took up around 19cm of yarn! On a rough calculation, this clutch consumed around 210m of yarn! 

The yarn I used is Lion Brand 24/7 Cotton in No.122 Taupe (about 1.25 x 100g skein). Taupe has several shades, and this particular shade is like the Pantone Taupe Gray. This colour would not have been a choice in my younger days. But over the years, I've grown to like taupe, as well as various other neutral shades like beige, camel, nude, and sand. Now I really appreciate the timeless, classic quality of these colours.

The lining for this bag is Cloud9 Aubade by Michelle Engel Morn's Ray Pink. The fabric's pretty pink made a nice contrast to the taupe grey, and the white sunburst motif kind of mirrored the details of the star stitches too.

Neutral on the outside, pretty pink on the inside!

I initially wanted to use Liberty Tana Lawn Margaret Annie X from the Alice Caroline Exclusive for the lining. In my head, it seemed like the 2 would work well, but when I actually put them together, they did not go together at all. The overall look was too busy — messy, even — and the beautiful details in both the star stitches and the Liberty fabric just seemed to clash.

My first choice of fabric didn't work. Too much going on, isn't it?

For the lining, I didn't follow the method outlined by All About Ami, and worked out a less tricky pattern for the lining that is closer to the shape of the clutch bag.

Sewing the lining to the zipper and the bag was pretty challenging. (Yo, first-time bag making here!) I made many mistakes and was dissatisfied with how it went, so I undid stitches and re-did it a few times. I first stitched the lining and zipper together (the easy part), then attached it to the clutch bag. When sewing to the bag, I used back stitches, making sure the stitches on the lining were consistent and the stitches on the bag were hidden behind the topmost row of slip stitches. For the stitches on the bag, I mainly went through the crochet stitch posts or wove the needle and thread through the loops at the back as one would when weaving in ends during crochet. It took more time than one usually does when hand-stitching fabric but I made it in the end, and the clean finish was worth the effort.

Hand stitched the zipper and lining to the bag, so the stitches won't show on the outside of the bag.

Before gifting it to my friend, I did a test-run to see how many items could fit into the bag. It didn't look it, but I managed to comfortably stuff in quite a few essential items: a purse, an iPhone, a power bank, a packet of extra face masks (5 pcs), a flat mask holder, my house keys...and it could probably fit a slim business card holder and a small bottle of hand sanitiser.

Comfortably fits all the essentials!

Materials & Tools:

• Star stitch pouch crochet pattern by All About Ami, modified for size and addition of hand strap;
• 4mm crochet hook;
• Lion Brand 24/7 Cotton No.122 Taupe (about 1.25 x 100g skein) from Tiny Rabbit Hole;
• Cloud9 Aubade by Michelle Engel Morn's Ray Pink from Sing Mui Heng;
• YKK 4VS zipper chain #573 Beige and YKK ring zipper puller in Coffee from Sing Mui Heng.