Crochet Projects: Mother's Day Totes

In the last year, my appreciation for homemade gifts (both given and received) has increased very much.  As a girl, I was always encouraged to make things to give to my mom and dad, particularly on Mother's and Father's days.  Without any income (besides an allowance which our parents gave us anyway), time to spend personalizing a card was all me and my sister had to give.

So for Mother's Day this year, I was really excited about another opportunity to make a homemade gift.  Both my mom and my mother-in-law really liked the Starling Handbag I made during the winter.  Why not make a springy-er version for each of them?

I chose fabrics and yarn which I thought fit each of their unique styles, and I changed the design a little bit to fit their preferences.  They both like large purses, with pockets and a zipper, and longer handles to wear on their shoulder.

So here's the pattern link.
Here's a tutorial I more or less followed for help with the zippers.
Here's the tutorial for the flower pin.

Here are some more notes on what I did:
* Yarns used: Lily brand Sugar 'n Cream yarn in Sonoma and Ecru.
* Fabrics (also shown as part of my blog header) were from Field's Fabrics.
* I was (bonus!) able to use the zipper I removed from my sweatshirt-turned-scarf project.
* For the flower pins, I glued a small circle of felt to the back of each, then hot-glued a safety pin.

I am really happy with how these purses turned out.  Actually, I'm a bit jealous when I see my mom and mother-in-law using them.  Perhaps I'll need to make myself another one :-).  The day before Mother's Day was a little bit hectic trying to finish the purses, as I hinted about in my last post, but SO worth seeing how much my "moms" love their gifts.