Inspired by mrsrachel ‘s bag http://www.ravelry.com/projects/mrsrachel/african-flower-bag but I plan to make mine a lot smaller. Good African Flower tutorial here:

http://heidibearscreative.blogspot.com/2010/05/african-fl...

I’m doing the final round of each flower in single crochet instead of double crochet, except for the one on the bottom of the bag, which has two rounds of DC to make it a little larger.

Eight motifs plus the larger one on the bottom.

I wove them together using something like kitchener stitch instead of whip-stitch. Looks neater.

Instead of working plain rounds above and below the flowers, I started right in on the shaping rounds. Also found that I needed to work the 3 DC tog on the second shaping round to prevent it from spreading out.

The strap is a single layer of crochet. I made a long-enough chain (130 st), single-crocheted down one side and back up the other, then flipped it over (to prevent curling) and did a row of orange SC around the edge. I rounded the ends by working 4 st in each end-loop in red, then two st in each of those 4 st in orange.

SUPER FUN to make. It turned out a little taller than necessary, so I might try another with just a single row of four flowers.