Holiday Spirits Bottle Bag in Red Heart Holiday - LW3206 - Downloadable PDF

Holiday Spirits Bottle Bag in Red Heart Holiday – Crochet Pattern Summary

Designed by Michele Wilcox and published by Red Heart, the Holiday Spirits Bottle Bag (pattern number LW3206) is a festive crocheted bottle bag sized to hold a standard wine or spirits bottle. The finished bag measures 12 inches (30 cm) tall and 6 inches (15 cm) wide, making it an elegant and reusable alternative to gift tissue and bags during the holiday season. This is a free, downloadable PDF pattern rated as Easy, making it an ideal project for beginner and confident beginner crocheters alike who want a quick, satisfying seasonal make.

What Is Being Made

The project is a crocheted bottle bag classified as a homeware accessory. It is worked in the round from the bottom up, beginning with a flat circular base and building into a cylindrical body. The bag features a decorative eyelet round near the top through which a crocheted tie is threaded, and the tie is finished with two handmade pompoms — one at each end. The two-color design in red/silver and white/silver gives the bag a sparkling, celebratory holiday appearance.

Materials Used

• Yarn: RED HEART® Holiday® in two colorways — 9040 Red/Silver (Color A) and 140 White/Silver (Color B), one ball of each. This is a worsted weight yarn with a built-in metallic silver strand that adds festive shimmer without any extra embellishment.
• Crochet Hook: Susan Bates® 4mm [US G-6] crochet hook.
• Notions: A split lock stitch marker, a yarn needle for weaving in ends, and a piece of 3" × 3" cardboard used as a board for wrapping the pompoms.

Gauge

The pattern specifies a gauge of 13 stitches = 4 inches (10 cm) and 8 rounds = 3½ inches (9 cm) in pattern. Checking gauge before beginning is recommended to ensure the bag fits a standard bottle correctly.

Techniques Used

• Working in continuous rounds — The circular base and lower body of the bag are worked in continuous (unjoined) rounds with a stitch marker moved up each round, a common technique in crochet that avoids visible seams.
• Joined rounds with turning — From Round 8 onward, rounds are joined with a slip stitch and the work is turned, which creates a neat, structured fabric and allows for clean color changes.
• Working in the back loop only — Round 8 is worked in the back loop only of each single crochet, a technique that creates a subtle horizontal ridge and marks the transition from the flat base to the upright sides of the bag.
• Two-color striping — Colors A (Red/Silver) and B (White/Silver) are alternated in a repeating stripe sequence throughout the body of the bag, creating a classic holiday stripe effect.
• Eyelet round construction — Round 31 creates an eyelet row using a combination of chains and double crochet stitches spaced with chain-1 gaps. This open lacework round forms the channel through which the tie is woven.
• Crocheted tie (chain cord) — A simple chain of 75 stitches, finished with slip stitches back along the chain, forms a sturdy and tidy drawstring-style tie.
• Pompom making — Two pompoms are made by wrapping Color B (White/Silver) yarn around a 3-inch cardboard square 45 times, tying the loops tightly at the center, and then cutting and trimming the ends to form a full, round pompom. One pompom is attached to each end of the tie.
• Increasing for the circular base — Rounds 1 through 7 use evenly spaced increases (2 single crochets in the same stitch) to expand the flat circle from