knitted handbag - no knitting needed

Among the many items I love on etsy there are some gorgeous knitted handbags. Their price range goes from $40 to $70 but I managed to make myself one bag which costs no more than $10. And there is no knitting involved - great news for someone who doesn't know how to knit, like me. But you do need to know how to sew :)

I went to Goodwill and bought a knitted sweater, one with a nice pattern on both sides.

Here is how I transformed the sweater into a purse.

 I cut it about 4" above the armpit.

I made the opening between the front and back bigger and cut down along the seam. 

Turned it inside out and sewed along the bottom, then cut out the extra fabric.











It starts taking the shape of a purse.

Cut the lining as wide as the exterior knit but not as long. When folded, the lining should be 3" shorter.

The only reason my red lining has round corners is because it's from a previous project which I abandoned. 

Now go ahead and attach pockets on both sides. I used a different fabric for pockets.

As you can notice one of my two pockets is a zipper pocket.

Don't forget the magnetic snaps.

 Fold the lining right sides together and sew up the sides. Make sure that the side seams of the lining are as long as the side seams on the knit.

Place the lining inside the knit, rights sides together and stitch them up so that the two are now stitched together along this seam. Repeat this process on the other side.

Turn the lining inside out.

Fold in the raw knit edges and topstich the sides.

Fold the top edge of the bag by 1/2" over the handle.

Fold it again and tack it to the bag.

Be prepared for a difficult stitch (very thick layer and uncomfortable stitch because of the round handle). My sewing machine got jammed several times and I lost a needle half way through (it just broke) and decided to handstitch the rest.

(for the pom pom, see the tutorial here)

Let's see the price now:
sweater from Goodwill... ..........$4.99
bamboo handles from JoAnn ..... $4.79 (with a 40% off coupon)
zipper from Harris Fabric Outlet..$0.50
magnetic snaps from JoAnn.........$0.66
TOTAL........................................$10.94

OK, I was wrong, it's 94 cents more than 10 bucks :)
I didn't add up the lining as you can use scrap fabric.