Leudes Crochet Bag Honest Review: Pockets, Straps and Real Limits

I will be honest with you: I bought the Leudes Crochet Bag Backpack because I was tired of digging yarn out of a plastic tote. Thirty years of crochet and I still had not found a bag that kept a project tidy from my recliner to my kitchen table and back. So when I finally ordered this one, I had a list of things I wanted it to actually do. After several months of using it for hats, dishcloths and baby blankets, I have strong opinions about the pockets, the straps and the limits nobody mentions in the product photos.

The short version: the Leudes bag is a good, honest workhorse for a single project, and it has a few real flaws that you should know about before you buy. It is not the last bag you will ever need. It is the bag that makes Tuesday night crochet easier, and for a lot of us that is worth the money.

How I've Used It

I am Joanne Pruitt, a retired middle school math teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts. I have crocheted for about 30 years, ever since my aunt sat me down with a hook and a ball of worsted weight and told me to make a granny square. These days I mostly make blankets, dishcloths, hats and baby gifts for my church's donation drive. I work in a recliner in my living room with a floor lamp, and I block at my kitchen table. My right thumb gets stiff in cold weather, so how a bag's straps and handles feel matters to me more than it might to someone else.

For this review, I used the Leudes bag every day for about four months. I carried a hat project in it, then a dishcloth project, then a baby blanket. I took it to my church craft group, I carried it to a friend's house, and I hung it on the back of my dining chair while I worked. I did not treat it gently. I wanted to know what it would be like after a season of real use, not after a week of being careful.

The bag held up. The stitching stayed tight, the zippers never snagged, and the fabric cleaned up with a damp cloth. But I also found the things that annoy me, and I think they are the things most reviews leave out.

To be fair to the bag, I did try to be hard on it. I packed it heavy on purpose some days, four skeins of worsted, a half finished blanket, a hook roll, scissors, a tape measure and my reading glasses, and carried it up and down the stairs to the church basement. I left it in the car on a hot afternoon in July and on a freezing morning in January. I set it on the damp grass at a park bench once and wiped it off afterward. None of that left a mark that mattered. The worst I can report after all of it is a little fuzz on the outside where it rubs against my coat.

The Pockets: More Useful Than I Expected

Let me start with the pockets, because that is the reason most people buy a crochet bag in the first place. The Leudes bag has a main compartment, an outside pocket, and a few interior slip pockets. The main compartment is big enough for a full blanket project with several skeins of yarn, and the outside pocket is perfect for a pattern printout, a small pair of scissors and a yarn needle.

What surprised me was the interior slip pockets. I expected them to be decorative. They are not. I keep a row counter, a tape measure and a small notebook in them, and everything stays where I put it. When I am working in my recliner, I can reach in without looking and find the row counter in the same spot every time. For someone who likes to keep a project moving, that is a small luxury.

The one pocket complaint I have is the outside pocket. It is roomy, but it does not have a separate divider, so small items like stitch markers can drift to the bottom. I solved that by keeping my stitch markers in a tiny tin. It is not a dealbreaker, but it is the kind of thing I wish someone had told me.

A word on the hook slots, since that is what I worried about most before buying. My cushion grip hooks, a couple of larger plastic hooks and a tapestry needle case all fit into the dedicated slots without poking through the fabric, which was a constant problem with my old canvas tote. The slots are snug enough that nothing falls out when the bag tips over on the car seat, but not so tight that I have to wrestle a hook free when my thumb is stiff on a cold morning.

The Straps: Comfortable, With One Caveat

The Leudes bag comes with both backpack straps and a top handle. The backpack straps are padded and surprisingly comfortable, even with a heavy blanket project inside. I have mild stiffness in my right thumb in cold weather, and I did not feel any extra strain carrying this bag on my shoulder. The padding is soft without being bulky, and the straps are long enough to fit over a winter coat.

The caveat is the top handle. It is fine for lifting the bag from the floor to a table, but it is not comfortable for carrying it any distance. The handle is thin and the bag is wide, so it swings awkwardly when you carry it by the handle alone. I learned to use the backpack straps for anything more than a few steps.

There is also a small strap detail that took me a while to notice: the backpack straps are not adjustable in the way I expected. They have a fixed length with a buckle, and you can shorten them, but the adjustment range is smaller than on a typical backpack. For me, the default length works fine. For someone much shorter or much taller, it might not.

I also want to be honest about how it sits on my shoulders, because I am not a large woman and many backpacks are built for someone taller. The Leudes straps adjust down far enough that the bag sits in the middle of my back instead of bumping my hips. Loaded with a blanket project, it never felt like it was pulling me backward, and my thumb, which I watch closely, did not have to grip anything to carry it. That alone is a reason I prefer it to a tote, which always ends up hanging from my hand.

The pockets are the reason I reach for this bag every evening. The straps are the reason I keep using it. The top closure is the reason I sometimes wish I had bought something else.

The Real Limits Nobody Mentions

Here is what the product photos do not tell you. The Leudes bag does not stand up on its own when it is empty. The base is soft, so the bag flops over unless it is full enough to hold its shape. That is fine when you have a blanket project inside, but it is annoying when you are switching projects and the bag is half empty.

The second limit is the top closure. The bag has a drawstring and a flap with a magnetic snap. The drawstring is easy to pull, but the magnetic snap is not very strong. If you overstuff the bag, the flap pops open. I have learned to pack the bag so the flap sits flat, but it took me a few weeks to figure out the right amount of yarn.

The third limit is the fabric. It is a soft, flexible material that feels nice to the touch, but it is not waterproof. A spilled cup of coffee or a sudden rain shower will soak through. I do not carry this bag outside in bad weather without putting my yarn in a plastic bag first.

And the fourth limit is the size. The bag is large, which is great for a blanket project, but it is too big for a small hat project. If you are the kind of crocheter who likes to carry a single skein and a hook, this bag will feel like overkill. I keep a smaller bag for those days.

None of those limits stopped me from using the bag every day, but I want you to know them going in so you are not surprised. A product that is honest about what it is not tends to be one you keep. In my experience the bags that disappoint are the ones bought on the strength of a photo, and the Leudes is a bag that looks better after you use it than it does in the pictures.

What It's Like to Carry Every Day

I have carried this bag to my church craft group four times, to a friend's house twice, and on the bus to visit my sister once. The backpack straps make it easy to carry hands-free, which matters when you are also carrying a coffee cup and a bag of snacks. The bag fits under a bus seat, though it takes up most of the foot space.

The craft group is also where I noticed the yarn feed. I can leave a ball inside the main compartment, run the strand out through the top opening, and crochet with the bag on the floor beside my chair. The ball stays put and unwinds cleanly instead of rolling under the table, which used to happen to me at least once a meeting. It is a small thing, but small things are what make you want to pick up a project instead of leaving it home.

At home, the bag lives on the floor next to my recliner. When I want to work, I pull it onto my lap, open the top, and take out the project. When I am done, I put the project back in and pull the drawstring. It is a simple rhythm, and the bag supports it well.

The one thing I have to be careful about is the magnetic snap. If I set the bag down too hard, the flap can pop open and yarn can spill out. It has happened twice, and both times I was carrying the bag by the top handle. The fix is simple: carry it by the backpack straps and set it down gently. But it is worth knowing before you buy.

Who This Is For

This bag is for the crocheter who works on one project at a time and wants everything in one place. It is for the person who carries a project to a craft group, to a friend's house, or just from the living room to the kitchen table. It is for the person who likes pockets that actually hold things and straps that do not dig into their shoulders.

It is also for the person who does not want to spend a lot of money on a bag. The Leudes bag is priced well below many designer project bags, and it does the job. You are not paying for a brand name. You are paying for a practical bag that works.

If you are newer to crochet, this bag is also a good way to build tidy habits from the start. Hooks in their place, yarn in its compartment, notions in their pockets. I wish I had learned that thirty years ago instead of after decades of digging through a tote.

Who Should Skip It

Skip this bag if you need something that stands up on its own. The soft base means the bag will flop over when it is not full. Skip it if you carry multiple projects at once. The main compartment is one big space, so a second project will mix with the first. Skip it if you need a waterproof bag for outdoor use. This is a house bag, not a rain bag.

And skip it if you are looking for a small, lightweight bag for a single skein. The Leudes bag is large and it has structure, which is great for a blanket but too much for a hat. For those days, I use a small drawstring pouch.