Before spring had officially sprung, I came across this image of a Frida Kahlo basket bag from the 2015 summer collection of Lulu Guinness:

and if I had been paying attention, this bag could have been mine for just under $400 — not including taxes, or shipping and handling — and while I appreciate that much of this work has been done by hand, I figured that for some number substantially south of $400, I could probably create a workable facsimile of this genre of bag that I think of as “the face purse.”

To that end, I began with the base (which was the subject of my last post), and began working my way up the sides.

I tried it first using a half-double crochet, but by the third round, I could see that the hdc would be too thick.

So I frogged my crochet up the sides and began working in double crochet stitches (through the back loop only), and while I got a look that I liked, it wasn’t sufficiently sturdy, and to complicate matters, but the time I got to the fourth round, it was clear that I should have made some strategic decreases in the first round of working my way up the sides.

One important discovery I inadvertently made, however, was a way to crochet the double crochet stitch that preserved the back loop only look but added a bit more structure to the stitch.

So I frogged it again, and again recrocheted the side, and finally, I had something that I not only could live with, but which holds a lot of promise for the finished project:

At this point, I haven’t yet decided whose face to put on my bag, but I have a few ideas, and I am sure that with enough determination, I will eventually get it done.

And, if you want to know more about Lulu Guinness and some of her design process, I found this QVC video both informative and fun.