Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Sewing Project: Embellished Tote Bag


With my mad tote bag making skillz I decided to mess with the pattern a bit and made this for my daughter.  It is considerably larger and has grosgrain ribbon handles which saved me from the difficulty of the fold and sew. 

Pink and red are her favorite colors.  Compared to my canvas tote this thing was a steal.  The awesome corduroy was only $1.50/yard on clearance.  The pink is a light denim, on sale for $6.99/yard and the cherry pattern lining was $4.19 and I have plenty left over of all of them. 

I always see people doing cool things with felt so I bought some and then had no idea what to make, so monogrammed the bag with it.  The heat 'n bond doesn't work on felt and/or I did something stupid.  In any case, I practiced my "pivoting" where you turn the fabric while stitching to outline the "A" with pink thread.   Embroidering it on would probably have been cuter with a thicker, more noticeable thread, but it was good practice to use the machine. 

Notes on the project:
-the heart buttons were an afterthought.  If I'd been smart I would have sewn them on before I put the bag together so that the lining would have covered the back stitches.  You have to look pretty close to see them inside anyway so not a big deal. 

-fourth time is the charm, I finished this tote quickly and didn't make any major mistakes.

-the ribbon handles worked fine for me since the most this bag will hold is stuffed animals, but I don't think they'd stand up to a really heavy load, but maybe.  No promises!

-materials cost me about $5.75 and the project took two hours.

Verdict:  Tote bags for everyone!

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