You don’t know what to make for Auntie? Why not make her a pretty bag to keep her work in? The one on this page is in pale blue, and looks ever so pretty. Too difficult? Oh no, everything is easy when you know the way, and you are going to have a little lesson in Hairpin Work to-day. No, the work isn’t exactly done on a hairpin, but on a staple. This is similar in shape, only larger.

For this bag you will want your staple—get one about 2 inches in width—and a No. 1 steel crochet hook. You will also want a ball of Strutt’s MacramÈ Thread No. 512, Size 10. Then, if you want to line your bag, you will need something pretty for this. The bag you see here is lined with a heliotrope sateen, which peeps very prettily through the pale blue. One more thing—a few little white bone rings for the drawing-up strings to go through.

Commence by making a loop in your thread, you will want this loop to be as long as half the distance between the two prongs of your staple, so that when you hang it over one side the knot comes just in the middle. So do not tighten it until you see that it will come just here. Put this loop over the left side of the staple. Put the thread across the front, and over the right prong of the staple. Now take your crochet hook, put it in the loop, and catch the thread that you have put over the right prong from front to back. This makes the first loop on the right. Slip the hook over the right prong *, turn the staple over towards you, wrapping the thread round the left prong, as you do so. By turning, you now make the left prong the right one, you have now one loop on your crochet hook. Put the hook under the loop which is now on the left side of the staple, draw the thread through this. This gives you two loops on your hook. Put the thread over the crochet hook, and draw it through the two loops. Slip the hook over the right prong, and repeat from *. The picture shows the thread being drawn through the loop.

You must keep on making these loops until you have 90 on each side of the staple. Then finish off in this way. When you have made the 90th loop, don’t turn the staple, but make two or three chain stitches, cut the thread from the ball about 3 inches from your hook, and draw it through the loop on your hook. This finishes the strip.

Take the strip off the staple. Don’t be afraid—it won’t come undone. Make 6 strips the same length. These strips are twice as long as the bag is deep. In making the strips, don’t pull the loops round the staple too tightly. After a little practice the work will come quite easy, and you will get along quickly with it.

Having finished your strips you have to join them. One of the pictures shows this being done. Take two strips and lay them side by side on the table, with the commencing ends of each towards you. Take up on your crochet hook three loops from the strip on the left, then three loops from the strip on the right. As the six loops lie on the hook—three from each side—draw the three from the right through the three from the left, with the help of your left thumb and first finger. (If you look at the picture you will see that these loops usually lie twisted. They should be taken on to the hook in this way, and if one is not twisted, turn it over with your finger and thumb).

You have now three loops on your hook, which were picked up on the right hand strip. Take up three more from the left, and so on, for the length of the strip. When you get to the end of the strip (your last loop will have been taken from the right as you started on the left), stick the hook with the loops on into the middle of the strip on the left, and drawing through the length of thread which was left at the end of the strip, fasten off securely.

Now take the third strip and lay it on the right of the second strip; start by taking up three loops from the third. In joining, see that you always commence on the odd strip, that is to say, on 1, 3, 5, 7, etc., so that whether you are joining strips 2 to 3, or 3 to 4, you commence on strip 3, and whether you are joining 4 to 5, or 5 to 6, you commence on strip 5.

You must now fold in half your long piece of work, and join up the sides to make it into a bag. The sides are joined just the same as the other part, taking first 3 loops from one side and 3 from the other until you get to the bottom. With a little piece of thread, fasten off very neatly on the wrong side, sticking the hook in the middle of one of the strips before finishing off, to make it quite firm.

To finish the top of the bag make a loop in the thread, draw this through the top of one of the strips, make 5 chain stitches, then 1 double crochet into the joined loops, 5 chain, 1 d c into middle of next strip. Do this all round the top of the bag, and fasten off.

For the cord, make a chain of 36 inches. Sew 10 little white rings at even distances round the bag, about 2 inches from the top. Run the cord through these rings twice, and when you get back the second time to the ring you started from, join the cord neatly with a needle and cotton. Now you see it will pull up quite nicely each side, and Auntie can hang the bag on her arm.

We have not talked about lining the bag. Perhaps you don’t want to line it, but if you do, make a bag of silk or sateen (like the one described on page 11), the same size as the macramÈ bag, and slip it into it, just catching it at the corners with a few tiny stitches, so that the lining does not slip out of the bag. This lining should have a nice deep hem at the top, which could peep over the top of the macramÈ bag. Your bag is now finished, and if Auntie is not delighted with it, I shall be very much surprised.