Hi pal! Welcome back to the blog! Today I am sharing with you a refresh on my most popular crochet pattern to date, my D&D Dragon Scale Dice Bag / Mermaid Scale Bag / Whatever You Want To Call It Bag, and I am SO freaking excited. I didn't really touch anything here on the blog itself, other than adding in a few things, like this paragraph and the video right under it, but other than that the main changes come with the Ravelry PDF you can purchase if you want.
If you sign up for my mailing list, you get a PDF copy that you can download for free, and a free copy you can add to your Ravelry library!
Anyway, this pattern is super versatile, you can use whatever yarn and hook you want with it, and I show you exactly how that works in the YouTube tutorial. I hope you enjoy it, I hope it helps, and I'll see y'all later!
Today I am sharing an old pattern with y’all, but one of my favorites and most popular ones from my old blog. This hasn't been tested by anyone, but it has been made plenty of times with nothing tossed my way so I assume it makes enough sense for you to make your own bags. I wrote this in 2018 and have updated it as best as I can, but please let me know if you run into any issues!
Project Supplies
One Skein Mandala Baby in Acre Woods - shown in the YouTube video
OR
One skein of worsted weight yarn (Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Crayon Box) for the smaller bag.
OR
2 skeins of worsted weight yarn (Red Heart Super Saver in Retro Stripes) for the larger cross body bag
Tapestry Needle
Scissors
Pattern Notes
Please read all notes and directions before starting the pattern.
Chain stitches at the beginning of each round do not count as a stitch.
In this pattern I recommend starting with hdc instead of dc. Originally I used double crochets to start the bottom of the bag, (and it might be that way in the YouTube video if I remember right…) but the stitches were just a little too big and dice/trinkets were falling through, so with some testing and comments from y’all, I updated it. Half double crochets seem to work wonderful, and if that’s still not tight enough, drop a hook size or two <3
Abbreviations
ch
Chain
dc
Double crochet
hdc
Half Double Crochet
slst
Slip Stitch
Pattern Directions
Bag
To start, make a magic circle, chain two, or chain 2 and work into the first stitch.
Row 1 – 10 hdc in the magic circle, sl stitch to join, ch 2
Row 2 – 2 hdc in 1st st repeat around and sl st to join, ch 2 (20 st total)
Row 3- 1 hdc in 1st st, 2 hdc in 2nd st and sl st to join, ch 2 ( 30 st total)
For the smaller dice bag, continue with row 4 below. If you want to continue on with the larger cross body trinket bag, continue below under “Larger Bag Cont.”
Row 4 - Hdc in 1st st, hdc in each st around. Slst to join, ch 2 (30)
Row 5 – In ch 2 space, put 2 dc, chain 1, skip 2 stitches, and put 2 dc in the 3rd stitch repeat around for a total of 40 dc clusters, sl stitch to join, ch 2
In that first set of dc’s, you are going to front post dc down the side of the first one 3 times, chain 1, then turn your work and dc 3 times up the second dc of the set. You will continue around the row doing the same thing on each set of dc’s, sl st to join, then turn your work.
Row 7– Here is where you build the next row to support your crocodile stitches you will make in row 8. You will dc in the gap in the middle of your first crocodile stitch, then put two dc through the joined area of the two crocodile stitches and row 8. Repeat around and sl st to join, chain 2.
Repeat rows 6 & 7 until your bag is as deep as you want, mine are normally 5 rows of crocodile stitches, but you can make them as tall as you want.
Final steps are below for both bags - Finishing
Larger Bag Cont.
Row 4 – 1 hdc in 1st 2 st, 2hdc in 3rd st sl st to join, ch 2 (40 st total)
Row 5- 1 hdc in the 1st 3 st, 2hdc in the 4th sl st to join, ch 2 (50 st total)
Row 6- “1 hdc in 1st 4 st, 2hdc in 5th st* sl st to join, ch 2 (60 st total)
Row 7 – hdc all the way around, sl st to join, ch 2 (60)
Row 8 – in ch 2 space, put 2 dc, chain 1, skip 2 stitches, and put 2 dc in the 3rd stitch repeat around for a total of 40 dc clusters, sl stitch to join, ch 2
In that first set of dc’s, you are going to front post dc down the side of the first one 4 times, chain 1, then turn your work and dc 4 times up the second dc of the set. You will continue around the row doing the same thing on each set of dc’s, sl st to join, then turn your work.
Row 10 – Here is where you build the next row to support your crocodile stitches you will make in row 11. You will dc in the gap in the middle of your first crocodile stitch, then put two dc through the joined area of the two crocodile stitches and row 8. Repeat around and sl st to join, chain 2.
Repeat rows 9 & 10 until your bag is as deep as you want, mine are normally 5 rows of crocodile stitches, but you can make them as tall as you want.
Finishing
To finish the bag, make sure you are ending on a crocodile stitch row, and then half double crochet all the way around, sl st to join and finish off.
To create the strap, I did ch 5, make 4 hdc, ch 1 and turn and worked that back and forth, until it was long enough to wear as a cross body bag (this will depend on each person, I am 5 ft 2 with a super short torso, and mine was 44 inches long).
To create the cinch tie, chain 120, then turn and slip stitch all the way back through the chain, finish that off and weave it in between the dc’s around the top of the bag and turn it into a “cinch” bag.