Tote

I saw this tote pattern on Pinterest and thought it would be great for toting all my supplies to costume days. Lots of pockets on the outside for scissors, rulers and other notions. The pattern is free to download which is great. It gives you the dimensions for all the pattern pieces so I made up my own pattern pieces from that. They're all basic rectangles, easy to draw up. The pattern calls for three different fabrics, one of which should be quilted. I only had the one quilted fabric in my stash which I love and I was able to find a couple other fabrics in my stash to match.

First I cut out the main body of the bag out of the quilted fabric. The sewed the two pieces together with the right sides together.

Then I cut out the outer pockets out of a light lilac fabric.

Then the many trim pieces and inner pocket.

I sewed the edging to outer pockets.

I pressed the trim flat and folded it over the back side of the pocket to cover the top of the pocket.

Next I sewed the bottom panel of the bag to the two side pockets.

I then top stitched the outer edges of the pockets to the main body of the bag and the seams to divide the outer pockets into three separate compartments.

At this point I deviated from the pattern instructions for making the pocket as they seemed way more detailed than a pocket needed to be. I used the rectangle from the pattern. 

I sewed the zipper onto the two ends of the pocket.

Once the zipper was on I laid the pocket flat with the zipper about 1 1/2 inches from the top of the pocket and sewed the sides shut.

Next I sewed the pocket to the inside of the bag.

 For the bottom of the bag you fold the bottom up to meet the bottom of the side pockets. You then sew from the top side of the bag down to the bottom sewing the folded in piece flat down together.

For the straps I folded the fabric in half and sewed the right sides of the fabric together. 

I turned it inside out and pressed it and then top stitched along each edge. I then lined them up with the pocket seams on the outside of the bag and sewed them to the top of the bag.

Lastly I pinned the trim for the top edge down. once sewn down I sewed the two ends of the trim together. 

Then i folded it over and pinned it down to the inside of the tote sewing it down to close it up. I tacked the top of the straps down to the top edge of the bag.

Yay its finally done. I've been working on this for about six weeks. Normally it doesn't take me this long to complete a project but I've only been able to snatch a 1/2 an hour here and there to work on it with all the yard and garage work we've been doing lately.