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I have a lot of pairs of glasses for two reasons. One I lose them, all of the time and everywhere. I leave them at the doctor’s office, my Mimmie steals them and my house eats them. The sucky thing is that they are prescription, too. Within the past year I’ve learned about online places to buy glasses on the cheap. I’m talking $6-10 a pair. The good news is, if I lose them, that’s okay. The bad news is, even much cheaper, these things add up.
One day I was digging around in my purse for my glasses when I realized that my hard plastic case had busted open and it wasn’t something that was going to be fixed unless I strapped a rubber band around it. Now that is just a little too hillbilly a fix even for me…
So, one evening I worked out a plan using the basket weave stitch and using some fabric I’ve had lovingly stashed away with no project in mind. The good news, is with how quickly the stitch works, with a few episodes of the terribly depressing (yet horribly addictive) Locked Up Abroad playing, I knocked this baby out in an evening from start to finish, wham, bam thank you ma’am.
Also it is soft so it won’t scratch my cheapie lenses, stays securely close, and the nice soft feeling is easily recognizable when I’m digging around in a big ol’ mess of a purse. Want to make your own?
You will need:
- nice, thick yarn (I used Loops & Threads Immaculate – LOVE & you can buy at Michael’s)
- fabric (may be able to even use scrap)
- H crochet hook
- fabric glue
- scissors
- hot iron
- needle and thread
- button
First you’ll need to hook your crocheted piece. The basket weave works in sets of 8 and you’ll need three sets to make your case a good width. When using the basket weave, you add one to your count, so chain 25. Continue to basket weave your piece for a total of 20 rows (it will appear like ten with the pattern). If you need more help with this stitch, check out my how to basket weave crochet tutorial here.
Take your fabric and place your crocheted piece on top. Cut the fabric so that you have about an inch extra all of the way around.
Turn the edges in and press down so that your fabric piece has nice clean edges and is a bit smaller than the crocheted front piece.
Using just about any fabric glue you have on hand, smother the wrong side of the fabric all of the way to the edges and center the fabric and smooth down. Because the crocheted bit isn’t smooth, your fabric will not be perfectly smooth either, but that’s okay.
Normally I’d say allow to fully dry, but to be honest I didn’t do that. I was just too freakin’ excited I guess. It didn’t hurt anything, but I’d give it a little bit just to be safer (and smarter).
Lay out your piece with the fabric facing you with the shortest edge on the bottom toward you. Take and fold the first 6 rows (looks like 3 with the pattern) up to make a pouch. Using your crochet hook, use a single crochet down each side to close the pouch up.
Locate the center of the front of the bottom of the case and tack a button with a needle and thread in between the second and third rows (the crease for the first row of basket weave). Tack it loosely enough that thread can fit around but still a bit snugly so that it will hold securely in the end.
Locate the middle of the top and from the front side (without the fabric) begin chaining underneath the crochet to make a loop closure to hook around your button. For me, ten chains was perfect. Double the yarn by working your tail into the chain for the full length.
Bring the chain up and secure it into the same place where you began to chain and secure it with knots as needed.
Test out the button and chain closure to make sure it holds well, and either shorten or lengthen the chain loop or reattach the button as necessary. You should be able to get into the pouch easily without it popping open on its own.
Toss your glasses in, close it up and get into making the next one! These little pouches have so much handmade charm that they would make excellent gifts, plus since they use so little thread and fabric they can totally be stash busters!
Hoping that you have an absolutely fantastic Hump Day and that you get your crochet on!!!
