DIY Knotted Tote Bag

 

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How often do you wish you had a stylish tote bag to use at any given moment? You won't believe how easy it is to make one! Since I had lots of macrame cording left from a previous project I wanted to make a simple knotted tote bag perfect to carry groceries, books, or whatever! Some of you might think this is a macrame bag - but I prefer not to call it that. When you say macrame, you think of rather intricate ways of tying knots. But this bag is made by tying just a basic overhand knot - over and over - a knot most of us learned as a child. 

So, for this bag, you just take a cord and make a loop and insert one end of the cord into the loop. Pulling both cord ends in opposite directions so that the knot is tight - making knots over and over again. How easy is that!

Materials:

Macrame Cord - 3mm (328 ft.)

Board (13x20") wood, cardboard, or rod to hang cords on

Clips to hold the cords

Measuring tape

Scissors

Thread

Wide eye needle

Directions:

Decide how wide and deep you want the bag to be. I measured 4 times the length of the bag (20"x4) I should have doubled the 20" to 40" (front and back) I Cut 7 cords 80" long and folded in half to get the center. Tie  a knot in the center of all the cords.  

This will be the bottom of the bag.

Drape the cords over the board and place the knots at the top. Secure knots with clips to keep in place. Begin tying knots alternating cords using the right/left cords first.

Once the first row is tied, turn the board over and tie the cords on the back, making sure to tie the side cords (one from the front and one from the back) together.

Begin alternating cords .  .  .

tying simple knots .  .  .

Front .  .  .

and back .  .  .

for the next ten rows.

Then, gather the cords in two groups to make handles, tying together in a knot. At this point I realized I didn't have enough cords to make a shoulder length handle. So I cut more cords and tied them together on each side. Overlapping ends in a u-shape for handles.

Use thread to wrapped around the cords where they are tied and overlapped together.

Next, cut two cords, 24ft long to wrap the handles by creating  half slip knots the entire handle length. Make a loop with one cord and use finger to grab the opposite cord and pull through the loop .  .  . 

creating a slip knot. It's quite time consuming making these - pulling the long cord through - so sit down and watch a tv show, lol!

Continue making slip knots .  .  .

along the entire length of the handle .  .  .

making sure to push the loops together along the handle to keep it neat.

When finish knotting, use a wide eyed needle to thread the cord ends down through the loops .  .  .

to secure. Cut off excess cords.

Talk about looking stylish! You bet!

Perfect for groceries .  .  .

or to hold a few books!

Welcome to the Monthly Creative Craft Hop

hosted by Andrea of Design Morsels

If you're coming over from Mary @Home is Where the Boat Is, WELCOME! Wasn't her flower garden stake adorable! Up next after me is Carol @Bluesky at Home sharing how to paint a flower pot using ceramic paint! You won't want to miss this!

Be sure to have fun and get inspired by all of the wonderful creations this month by clicking on the links below!

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