How much yarn for a crochet tote or market bag?

The quick answer, by bag width

Measure the body of the bag you want across the top, without handles, and find the row that fits. Use the lower figure for a plain or mesh bag and the higher one for granny squares, bobbles or a deep base. If your pattern gives its own quantity, buy what the pattern says.

The metres come from patterns in worsted or aran-weight yarns. The grams also take in some DK bags from Jera’s Jamboree, which give grams only. The ball counts use Paintbox Cotton Aran, which has 85m in a 50g ball, and Stylecraft Special Aran, which has 196m in 100g. They round each end of the range up to whole balls.

Where the numbers come from

We opened each pattern page and noted the bag’s finished size and the yarn the designer used or asked for. Where a pattern gave grams, we worked out metres from the yarn label, and where it gave yards, we converted to metres and, if the label allowed, to grams. Some designers state the yarn they used, others a quantity to buy, so the buying figures run a little high.

We haven’t made these bags ourselves. The quantities are the designers’ own, and every pattern is linked at the bottom of this page.

Most of the cotton totes come from Viv Crochets, who gives the grams she used rather than a ball count. That makes her patterns the most precise in the set. Jera’s Jamboree, a UK designer, lists DK by the 50g or 100g, which is what you’d buy.

Why a cotton bag needs more grams

Most cotton yarns hold fewer metres in each 100g than acrylic of the same thickness. Paintbox Cotton DK has 125m in a 50g ball, which is 250m per 100g. Paintbox Simply DK, an acrylic, has 276m and Stylecraft Special DK has 295m. So 350 metres of the cotton weighs 140g, against 119g of Stylecraft Special DK.

It’s the same at aran weight. Paintbox Cotton Aran and Lion Brand 24/7 Cotton both work out at 170m per 100g, against 184m for Paintbox Simply Aran and 196m for Stylecraft Special Aran. Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/8 is denser still, at 150m from its 75m, 50g ball. A tote that needs 350 metres takes about 206g of Paintbox Cotton Aran or 233g of Rainbow Cotton 8/8, but 179g of Stylecraft Special Aran.

Pattern totals can’t show the fibre effect on its own, because stitch, hook and tension change the weight too. Six of Viv Crochets’ bags in Lion Brand and Big Twist cottons used 125 to 137g for every 1,000 square centimetres of front and back, which we worked out as width × height × 2, leaving out the base and handles. Moogly’s acrylic Sherbet Stripes tote used about 89g and Attic24’s wool Blossom Bag about 104g for the same area. But the Blossom Bag’s wool has 166m per 100g, much the same as 24/7 Cotton, and Viv’s bags also used more metres for each square centimetre. So much of that gap is her firm fabric and crocheted straps (Moogly’s tote has leather handles), not the fibre.

Not every acrylic is light, either. Lion Brand Heartland gives 230m in a 142g ball, about 162m per 100g, so read the label rather than going by fibre alone.

Tote, mesh, textured or granny squares

Mesh saves less yarn than it looks, at least in Viv Crochets’ patterns. Her mesh tote, 27.5cm wide and 20cm tall, used 140g of cotton. Her solid simple tote, 30 × 25cm, used 200g and her gingham tote, 27.5 × 27cm, 195g. On the front and back alone, the mesh tote used only 3 to 5% less yarn for each square centimetre. Count the bases as well and the gap grows to 14 to 17%. It depends on how you measure, and it’s one designer’s bags, so treat it as a rough guide.

Granny-square bags sit in the middle of the range for their size. Viv’s granny tote used 200g of cotton for 32 × 25cm, and her heart granny-square tote 240g for 31.5 × 30cm. Jera’s Jamboree’s Canterbury tote is a granny-square bag of 36 × 26cm made from one 142g ball of Lion Brand Heartland, plus small amounts of two other colours.

Texture costs the most. A Crocheted Simplicity’s Chevron Bobble Tote is only 25.5cm square, but it asks for 520 yards, about 475 metres, of Lion Brand Wool-Ease and ZZ Twist. That’s about 370 metres for every 1,000 square centimetres of front and back, against about 250 for Daisy Cottage Designs’ 35.5cm cotton tote, which has chain spaces through it. Kirsten Holloway’s cotton market bag, 30.5 × 35.5cm in clusters, cross stitches and shells, asks for 380 to 400 yards, about 350 to 365 metres.

Handles and straps

Most patterns include the handles in the total. A few list them separately, and those figures are useful if you want a contrast colour. Kirsten Holloway’s Secret Garden tote lists 75 yards, about 69 metres, for the handles, which are a contrast shade on her sample. That’s an extra 17 to 21% on top of the 360 or 450 yards for the bag.

Long cross-body straps take more. A Crocheted Simplicity’s chevron bag has a strap about 5cm wide and 74cm long, and Attic24’s Blossom Bag has two handles of 60 × 3cm. Attic24 suggests making the handles first, so you can watch your yarn as you work the body and stop a few rounds early if you’re running low. Leather or bought handles, as on the Crochet Dreamz and Moogly totes, take yarn out of the sum altogether.

Chunky, t-shirt and double-stranded bags

Bulky yarns need far fewer metres but similar or heavier weights. Viv Crochets’ chunky mesh tote used 130g of tube yarn, which is only 142 yards. Attic24’s Weekend Bag, 26 × 28cm in Stylecraft Special Chunky, weighs under 300g, about 430 metres at most. Crochet Dreamz’s t-shirt yarn tote needs 475 yards for 40.5 × 32cm and 620 yards for 53.5 × 35.5cm.

Bags worked with two strands held together are heavy for their size. The Go handmade Chanel Stitch bag on Hobbii uses 150g for an 18.5 × 12.5cm bag and 250g for 22 × 16cm. If you want a firm little purse, budget by weight, not by how small it looks.

Narrow it down with a weighed swatch

Crochet a 10cm square in your yarn, hook and stitch, then weigh it. Work out the front and back of your bag in square centimetres, divide by 100 and multiply by the swatch weight.

Say your swatch weighs 12g and the bag is 30 × 25cm. Front and back come to 1,500 square centimetres, which is 15 swatches, so 180g. Add the base the same way. A 26 × 4cm base is 104 square centimetres, about another 12g. Then measure and add the handles, and round up to whole balls. The budget calculator turns the total into balls and cost for your yarn.

Common questions

Sources and scope

• vivcrochets.com/simple-crochet-tote-bag-free-pattern-tutorial/
• vivcrochets.com/crochet-checkered-tote-bag-free-pattern-tutorial/
• vivcrochets.com/gingham-crochet-tote-bag-free-pattern-tutorial/
• vivcrochets.com/crochet-mesh-tote-bag-free-pattern-tutorial/
• vivcrochets.com/mesh-crochet-tote-bag-free-pattern-video-tutorial/
• vivcrochets.com/chunky-crochet-mesh-tote-bag-free-pattern-tutorial/
• vivcrochets.com/crochet-granny-tote-bag-free-pattern-tutorial/
• vivcrochets.com/crochet-heart-granny-square-tote-bag/
• vivcrochets.com/flower-granny-square-tote-bag-free-pattern/
• daisycottagedesigns.net/crochet-tote-bag-pattern/
• www.mooglyblog.com/sherbet-stripes-tote/
• attic24.co.uk/posts/2026/03/25/blossom-bag
• attic24.co.uk/posts/weekend-bag
• www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/crochet-mosaic-tote-bag/
• www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/rainbow-crochet-tote-bag/
• www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/crochet-heart-tote-bag-pattern-hearts-stripes/
• www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/granny-square-tote-bag-pattern-josephine/
• www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/crochet-tote-bag-canterbury-edition/
• www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/granny-square-crochet-bag/
• kirstenhollowaydesigns.com/2017/04/secret-garden-tote-market-bag.html
• www.acrochetedsimplicity.com/chevron-bobble-tote-bag-free-crochet-pattern/
• crochetdreamz.com/crochet-tote-bag/
• hobbii.co.uk/products/hp-1002256-chanel-stitch-taske
• www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/yarns/special-dk/
• www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/yarns/special-aran/
• www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/yarns/special-chunky/
• www.paintboxyarns.com/yarns/cotton-dk-50g/
• www.paintboxyarns.com/yarns/cotton-aran-50g/
• www.paintboxyarns.com/yarns/simply-dk/
• www.paintboxyarns.com/yarns/simply-aran-100g/
• www.paintboxyarns.com/yarns/paintbox-yarns-recycled-cotton-worsted-150g/
• hobbii.co.uk/collections/baby-yarn/products/hp-1001671-rainbow-cotton-8-8
• www.lionbrand.com/products/24-7-cotton
• yarnsub.com/yarns/knit_picks/dishie_solids
• www.lionbrand.com/products/re-up-yarn
• www.lionbrand.com/products/heartland-yarn

Sources checked 1 October 2026. Label facts come from the linked references; worked purchase examples and arithmetic are our own illustrations.