Little zip pouches help me organize my purse or travel bags. I thought it would be fun to make my own and use up some of my leftover yarn. I found the Honey Purse pattern by PetiteKnit that looked perfect! Continue reading for my experience knitting the Honey Purse.
HONEY PURSE
The Honey Purse is a zip-top pouch with little pull-tabs, knit in honeycomb brioche, and lined with fabric on the inside. The pattern gives instructions for three sizes — small/medium/large. I knit the small size, but it ended up being more of an extra small size.
YARN
Honey Purse calls for a fingering + lace held together, and I chose some leftovers from my Fantastitch/Brioband Combination Shawl.
I love this super bright pink. The cashmerino is more bright neon and the kumo is a lighter, softer neon. I love the soft, fluffy texture of the kumo. The fabric they make is so beautiful and plush; I really love this combination.
Gauge
I didn’t do a gauge swatch for the Honey Purse. Instead, I figured that I would swatch my wip once it was big enough. My most important thing was the look of the honeycomb brioche fabric, and then I would make any adjustments if needed.
There is direction for making a honeycomb brioche swatch in the pattern with a note about sizing up your needles if necessary. A swatch would definitely be helpful if you are planning your yarn choice, but the honeycomb brioche swatch instruction is worked differently than in the actual Honey Purse pattern. Just something to be aware of if you are working a swatch/checking for gauge.
HONEY PURSE CAST ON
Needles
The pattern calls for US 2.5 circular needles with a long enough cord to do the magic loop technique. The US 2.5 is maybe a little bit of an odd size. I only had down to a US 2 in my 4″ Chiaogoo interchangeable set. I wanted to try to use the recommended size so I could get a similar looking fabric to the sample.
Then I remembered my Chiaogoo Mini set! I associate this set with sock knitting since that’s all I use these needles for. But it comes with 2-inch and 3-inch versions of US 0 – 3 needles (including half sizes).
I used the recommended US 2.5, 3-inch needles on a 22″ mini cable that I had bought separately. This was perfect for me and I was excited to cast on the small size Honey Purse!
Judy’s Magic Cast On
The Honey Purse is a thin little pouch which uses Judy’s Magic Cast On to create a seamless start. I have used this cast on in a pair of socks before, but I didn’t remember how to get started. I watched this video to help:
The pattern says there is a video on the PetiteKnit site, but it doesn’t link to it. I searched for it on Youtube and found it here:
This video is also really helpful, and it shows a few of the next steps so you can really get off to a good start.
HONEY PURSE HONEYCOMB BRIOCHE
The Honey Purse pattern describes working the honeycomb brioche basically flat, and then “locking” the first stitch of the next row to prevent any holes in the fabric.
I had knit a few projects with honeycomb brioche in the round and prefer that method. I had even knit the Honey Clutch (also by PetiteKnit) with the honeycomb brioche in the round and shared my modification notes in that post.
So with this Honey Purse, I established the honeycomb brioche pattern as written (*P1, s1yo*) and I also knit the Round 1 of the repeat as written except for the “locking” stitch part at the end.
In the Round Modification Technique
Then I was ready to start knitting in the round! I referred to my notes in the Honey Clutch post, and I’m posting them again here for convenience:
Round 2: *P1, P1 together with the slip stitch* repeat to end of round
Round 3: *K1b, K1* repeat to the end of round
Round 4: *P1 together with the slip stitch, P1* repeat to the end of round
Round 1: *K1, K1b* repeat to the end of round
P1 together with the slip stitch: see video for example
K1b = knit one below
And then just repeat the four Rounds until it reaches the required length, ending after either round 2 or 4 before doing the bind off. I hope this method is helpful for you.
Here’s a video I found that shows this method:
Magic Loop | In The Round
I started knitting the Honey Purse using the magic loop technique since it was so small. I found it helpful to attach a stitch marker to the RS of the work at the beginning of the round. Usually I would slip a ring stitch marker on my needle, but with magic loop, your stitches are split in half between two needles, so these locking stitch markers are perfect.
As the purse got a little bigger, I was able to move my needles over to my 8″ mini cable and knit in the round. This was a lot faster and easier for me and I could use a ring stitch marker. I loved how the Honey Purse was coming together. The fabric was perfect and the extra fluff from the kumo gave it the softest glow!
Size Check
My pouch was starting to look the size that I was wanting, so I measured to see its dimensions. My Honey Purse was 5.5″ x ~3.5″. Clearly my gauge was tighter than the pattern, but I was happy with how it was looking.
I continued the honeycomb brioche pattern until I got to exactly 3.5″, ending after a round 2. I bound off all my stitches, trying to be a little looser, but the bind off is a bit tight.
HONEY PURSE TABS
I used my US 1.5 needles on the 8″ mini cable to work the tabs. I picked up the stitches through the two legs of the bind off stitches.
The tabs are only a few rows and then you do an Italian bind off. I had forgotten how to do this technique and the pattern doesn’t say, so I used this video ^ to help me.
I think my tabs turned out great, and all together, the Honey Purse took me 2 days to knit. Once all the knitting was done, I turned the purse inside out and used a darning needle to weave in all the ends.
ZIPPER + LINING
My Honey Purse sat dormant while I searched for a zipper and fabric that I wanted to use. I don’t sew (although I did buy a mini sewing machine) and I’m not really familiar with different fabrics, but I’ve had luck finding good things on etsy, so that’s where I started looking.
Zipper
Since my Honey Purse was only 5.5″ x 3.5″, I considered looking for a smaller zipper. The pattern calls for a 5.5″ zipper for a 6″ bag. So since my bag was 5.5″, I got a 5″ zipper (which was actually a more common size with more options available).
I finally decided on this set with 12 color zippers so I could make more little Honey Purses and have some variety. I love these colors and the zipper is really smooth.
Lining
I chose this set of 1/4 yard fabric which had similar colors to the zippers. I thought it would be easy to mix and match for a fun pop of color.
Sewing the Zipper
I chose this combination of zipper and lining for my Honey Purse. Even though I haven’t sewn much before, I watched the Honey Clutch video again and was ready to attempt the zipper.
I used the little clips that came with my fabric scissors and held my zipper in place inside my Honey Purse. And I used a hot coral colored thread that came with my sewing machine to sew in the zipper.
I think I did a great job. The zipper was secure, my stitches are mostly even, and its a perfect fit inside my Honey Purse. I love the pop of mint against the hot pink purse.
Prepping + Sewing the Lining
I cut the lining to 6″ x 8″ to adjust for my smaller pouch. Looking back, I wish I had insert a measuring tape into the pouch to get the most accurate dimensions. Instead, I had taken exterior measurements and I feel like my lining could be a little larger to fully fill out all the space inside.
I ironed the fabric to get the clear crease marks to help guide my sewing. And I got to use my little sewing machine for the first time to sew up the side seams. I think it worked really well and it was a lot easier than sewing by hand like last time with my Honey Clutch.
Once the lining was prepped, I held it in place inside the Honey Purse using my little clips and I turned the purse inside out. I used this video from the Honey Clutch to help refresh my memory on how to sew in the lining:
With this attempt at sewing, I found that giving a good tug on the thread helped to close any gaps. I wish I had been more aggressive when securing the lining in my Honey Clutch because I had some gaps.
I think my lining looks really good but there are some areas where you can still see the thread. Overall, it feels really secure and looks pretty good. I am so happy with how my Honey Purse turned out!
What Fits Inside My Honey Purse
I will mostly use my Honey Purse as an organization pouch in my crossbody purse. It’s small enough to fit inside most bags, and also large enough to carry out on its own as an “essentials” bag.
In these pictures, you can get a pretty good idea of what fits in my Honey Purse:
I have some beaded bracelets I made, some cash, my driver license, a lip gloss, a mini fragrance bottle, and a hair clip. It all fits nicely inside.
The Honey Purse was fun to make and I think it’ll be easy to modify the stitch patterns to make different styles. I recently bought this stitch dictionary and I can’t wait to try out some of the patterns. Hopefully with some more practice, I’ll get really good at sewing in the lining in my future Honey Purses.
Sign up for my newsletter and check out my Ravelry Page for a look at what I’m working on next!
