Pop Can Purse With Tutorial - PURSES, BAGS, WALLETS

Pop Can Purse

This is my first completely original project. Yea! I saw a pattern for crocheted beer can hats a while back and thought that would be awesome as a purse. I now this is crochet, but the duck tape attempt didn't quite work out. It's alot like the capri sun bags you see everywhere, but with cans. The best thing is there are hundreds of different kinds of pop cans to choose from. Ok, here goes my explanation:

SIZE: 10 inches by 7 inches high by 3 ½ inches deep

Materials:

10 pop cans, rinsed and dry
Scissors
Paper hole punch
Sport weight Yarn- I’m not sure exactly how much, but it didn’t seem to use very much of my 3oz. Skein.
Size H crochet hook
Sturdy Fabric- I used an old denim skirt
Sewing machine

The Steps:

1. Cut open the cans. Take your scissors and carefully poke a hole in the ingredients list near the top, cut around the top, back down the other side of the can and around the bottom. You now have a sheet of aluminum can. Cut a straight line separating the two pictures.
Cut on the dotted lines

2. Using your scissors, even up the edges of the cans so they are all relatively the same size. Don’t worry if they are slightly different sizes, in the end it won’t matter.

3. Now for the fun part, punching 304 holes! Whoohoo! Now you really don’t need to make your holes that close together, but stay ¼ inch away from the edge or else you’ll punch through the edge and ruin the can. Total of 16 holes in each can. Do this to 19 squares. See pictures below for explanation on steps to punching holes.

One hole in each corner

one hole in center of each side

two more holes on each side one between each corner and center.

4. Now for the easy part, a crocheted border around each square. Tie the yarn through a center hole. Draw up a stitch then chain one, single crochet in same hole. Chain one. Two single crochets in next hole, chain on, three single crochets in corner chain one. Continue around the square with two single crochet in each hole, three in the corners ending by slipstitching to beginning chain.

5. Whipstitch the squares together using the same color yarn or a contrasting color into the following pattern(note- the side and bottom labels are just for reference):

6. Now lay the cans as flat as possible and either trace around the cans onto the fabric or measure how big a piece you need. Make the fabric 1-2 inches larger than you need.

7. Now, using your handy dandy sewing machine, sew around the outside then down each space between the cans so everything is secure. It will looked quilted. This is necessary to keep the cans from becoming mutilated and bent, like my first purse using Squirt cans:

Inside of Purse:

8. Trim the excess fabric off the edges then whipstitch up the edges to form a bag. So now you have a bag. Crochet a handle to fit your bag, slipstitch it on and Viola! Purse!