Crochet Flowers...

I'm working on a new crochet project that started sort of as an accident. I wanted to crochet myself a yoga mat bag, but didn't have a pattern, so I thought I could just figure it out as I went along. I started out trying to crochet in rounds--which was a lot more complicated than I thougt it would be! Instead of the circle coming out flat, I kept getting wrinkly circles! Then I noticed that the wrinkly circles were actually very pretty, and I got an idea...why not turn them into flowers and use them as embelishments for bags/purses/pins? Seemed like a good idea, so I got to work making flowers!

While creating the flowers, I thought it would be a good idea to make leaves and stems as well, but I had no idea how to make leaves--so I figured it out by trial and error--and came up with a good pattern to follow. I basically chain stiched 12 stitches, then did one slip stich, 2 sc, 2 hdc, 2 dc, 1 tc, 1 dc, 1 hdc, 2 sc into one sticth. I then repeated the pattern going in th opposite direction (2 sc into one stich, 1 hdc, 1 dc, 1 tc, 2 dc, 2 hdc, 2 sc, 1 ss). I then did the other side of the leaf, following the same pattern. After the leaf was complete, I slip stiched down the center of the leaf to make it look like the veins of the leaf. the stems are just slip stiched chains. This is what one of the flowers and leaves look like:



After I had three flowers made, I started thinking about what kind of bag to attach them to. At first I thought I wanted to crochet a bag and attach them, but since this was my first attempt, I thought it would be good to go with something already made. The flowers themselves were teal and lavander, with light green leaves and stems, so I thought that a black background would match the best, and also be the most practical...so Brad and I headed over to American Apparel to purchase a bag that would work.

I've attached the flowers I've already made with straight pins, but I still have some stems and leaves to finish making. This is what my project is looking like so far, but I am far from finished. As soon as the bag is complete, I'll post pictures of it: