Starburst Granny Square Phone Sling Free Crochet Pattern

My Starburst Granny Square Phone sling pattern is my newest free crochet pattern!

Read on to learn more about my design process and inspiration, or scroll to the end to get the free pattern. If you’re in a hurry and need to take this pattern offline, grab the beautifully formatted, ad-free, PDF pattern from Etsy here.

A sleek and elegant phone sling with a huge pop of color!

I really really love granny squares, but since I mostly make amigurumi I don’t get a chance to use them that often.

When I thought of creating this phone sling, I really wanted it to have a neutral and minimalist look, but to have a beautiful granny square in the middle as an accent.

Fun fact: this granny square actually doubles as a pocket!

I created the Starburst Granny Square pattern because I wanted to have a hint of a floral motif, but mostly to use beautiful warm tones to create a radiating motif.

This bag is a little tricky for beginners because of the granny square motif as well as the detail work in creating the strap and button closure, but I’m proud to say that this pattern is entirely no-sew except for the pocket!

I know a lot of you really dislike sewing, so I made sure the strap and button closure were all worked in the round seamlessly.

Tips for making your first bag!

If you’ve never made a bag or home decor item, here are a few tips to get you on your way.

  • Choose your yarn carefully. I used WeCrochet CotLin, and I sized down my hook to way below the recommended size to keep my stitches neat and tight. Bags are meant to have a lot of structure, so you’ll need to work very dense stitches to ensure that the bag isn’t too stretchy.
  • I highly recommend Lion Brand 24/7 Cotton or any other durable cotton yarn. Cotton is pretty inelastic, and definitely avoid any stretchy yarns like acrylic or wool blends.
  • This pattern is designed to hold a 6″ x 3″ phone including a case, which are approximately the dimensions of the current iPhone.
  • If you want to make your bag wider or narrower, add more chains in the initial chain of the bag.
  • To make your bag taller or shorter, add more “hdc around” rounds or skip to the next steps early.

More home decor crochet projects:

Photo credit: Kami Jones

The Pattern

  • If you want to take this pattern offline, grab the beautifully formatted, ad-free, PDF pattern from Etsy here!

Description

This gorgeous phone sling fits all your essentials including your phone, card holder, and even has an outer slip pocket for earphones or airpods. You can mix and match this phone sling with any granny square pattern you like!

Yarn

Confused about materials? For all my personal recommendations of my most-used tools, yarns, and supplies, check out my favorites in this complete guide!

  • WeCrochet CotLin (DK weight)
    • (1 skein) Swan (white)
  • (<1 skein) Marigold (orange)
  • (<1 skein) Clementine (dark orange)
  • (<1 skein) Creme Brulee (custard yellow)

Notions

  • Size C 2.5mm Clover Amour hook
  • brown embroidery thread
  • 1/2″ brown button
  • sewing pins
  • tapestry needle
  • stitch markers

Abbreviations

  • BLO: back loop only
  • ch: chain
  • CC: contrast color
  • dec: decrease
  • dc: duoble crochet
  • hdc: half double crochet
  • inc: increase (work two single crochets in one stitch)
  • MC: main color
  • MR: magic ring
  • rnd: round
  • RS: right side
  • sc: single crochet
  • sk: skip
  • x sc: work x number of single crochets
  • sl st: slip stitch
  • st(s): stitch(es)
  • tr: treble crochet
  • WS: wrong side
  • (x sts): total number of stitches for the round
  • (…) x: work all steps within parentheses x number of times

Technical Notes

  1. Crochet in continuous joined rounds, unless specified otherwise. Use a stitch marker or piece of yarn to keep track of the last stitch in each round.
  2. You should use cotton yarn for this pattern to avoid overly stretchy fabric. I would recommend Lion Brand 24/7 cotton as well as the WeCrochet CotLin that I used.
  3. To avoid large holes in the crochet fabric, increase tension until the holes cannot be seen, or choose a crochet hook a size down.
  4. When crocheting the strap in round 28 of the bag, feel free to adjust it to your desired length. I wanted the bag to rest on my hip, and I’m 5’2″, so I worked 220 chain stitches. If you’re making any adjustments, keep in mind that the strap length will shrink slightly after building up it with single crochet stitches.

Color Coding

In this pattern, the MC is white, CC1 is orange, CC2 is dark orange. and CC3 is custard yellow.

Special Stitches

Final Size

4″ x 6.5″, strap drop 20″ (adjustable)

BAG (begin)

  • Begin: chain 25 (25 sts)
  • Round 1: from the second chain from the hook, hdc across. Work 3 hdcs in the last chain with the slip knot, then hdc across. Work 2 hdcs in the last stitch. Sl st to first st. See here for a tutorial on working around a foundation chain. (50 sts)
  • Round 2: chain (doesn’t count as a st), (hdc, hdc inc) x2, hdc 17, (hdc, hdc inc) x4, hdc 17, (hdc, hdc inc) x2. Slst to first st (58 sts)
  • Round 3-26 (23 rnds): chain, hdc around, slst to first stitch. (58 sts)
  • Round 27: chain, sc around (58 sts)
Fig. 1: Bag at the end of round 1.

Fig. 2: Bag after round 27. With the WS, facing you, put a purple st marker on the left edge and a red st marker on the right edge.

Preparation for crocheting the strap: The side where we have been joining the round is the “wrong side” of the bag, the “right side” is the opposite side. With the WS facing you, place a red stitch marker on the right edge and a purple stitch marker on the left edge (fig. 2).

Round 28: slst to the purple st marker, then chain 220 (adjust according to desired length, see technical notes for more info). Slst to where the red stitch marker is (fig. 3a). With the bag WS facing you, slip stitch across towards the purple stitch marker. When you get halfway, chain 18 and slst into the same stitch (fig. 3b), then continue slip stitching across to the purple stitch marker.

Building up the strap: Once you get to the purple stitch marker, single crochet into each chain stitch, working into the front and back loops at the same time. Crochet loosely when working into each chain stitch. If you crochet too tightly, it will result in a strap that curls.

Slst into the stitch with the red stitch marker and invisible finish off.

Fig. 4: Single crochet into all the chain sts.

GRANNY SQUARE POCKET (begin in CC3. Follow the Starburst Granny Square tutorial on my website)

Make one Starburst Granny Square, but before finishing off, sl st to one corner, then finish off and leave a long tail.

Pin to the front of your bag as shown in fig. 5. It should be on the opposite side as the button loop we just worked onto the top of the bag. Orient the granny square so that the tail is on the top right corner.

Fig. 6: Pin granny square in place. Starting at the red dot, sew all around, following the arrows.

Next, sew the square to the top of the bag, from the top right corner down to the top left, across the bottom, and then up the left side. Finish off and weave in end, leaving the top open.

Adding the button: Using 3 threads of brown embroidery floss, sew a button to the 3rd row of the bag (counting from the top). There should be about 13 sts to the left and right of the button.

Your phone sling is all done! I hope you enjoyed crocheting it and found the pattern helpful. I would love to see your finished project, so share a picture on Instagram with me by using the #littleworldofwhimsy and tagging me @littleworldofwhimsy.

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