How To Make A Tote Bag!

About

You Will Need (1 thing)

Steps (20 steps, 60 minutes)

1. 1

   Cut one 36x15 inch piece from both fabrics
   Cut two 5x16 pieces for the sides from both fabrics
   Cut two 25x4.5 pieces from just the lining fabrics
   You should have two body pies and four side pieces and two strap pieces when done.

2. 2

   (optional): add some lace or other embellishments to your big front tote fabric piece! I added a bit of brown lace.

3. 3

   Arrange a fabric side panel and the corresponding fabric bag piece right sides together. The side piece should, of course, be flush to the side of the main piece.

4. 4

   Pin if you wish, and sew a straight stitch down

5. 5

   Now, when you reach the end of the side panel piece you want to stop, of course. It should look like this:

6. 6

   Now you want to take the free edge and allign it with the edge of your main body piece, creating a "bottom" for that main piece. Take the blue to the red.

7. 7

   It should look like this: Now sew.

8. 8

   When you are done sewing the bottom area, it should look like this:

   This is kind of complicated and I hope I explained it well! I don't know correct names for things...

9. 9

   Now, take the last edge and align it to the last edge of the main bag piece. Like this

   Now sew. Congrats! You have attached the first side!

10. 10

    Attach the other side, following the directions above from step 3.

11. 11

    attach both sides to the lining fabric from step 3, and add any pockets if you like to the lining fabric (do this before attaching side pieces to lining)

12. 12

    Place your lining in the bag so the wrong sides are together.

13. 13

    Fold the top of the bag down once, then down again to encase the raw edges. Pin.

14. 14

    Sew all the way around the top of the bag.

15. 15

    Now for the straps. Fold in half, wrong sides on the inside, and sew down the free edge. We are creating tubes.

    Turn right side out. (harder then it sounds...this was the longest step for me...)

16. 16

    Fold the ends down.

17. 17

    Pin to bag. one on each side. don't let the strap on the left side go to the right side: you want one strap on the left side and the other on the right.

18. 18

    Sew on, using an X pattern as well as getting all sides! Remember: these straps will hold everything! Sew a lot!

19. 19

    Go around the top of your bag again, and around both edges of the straps.

20. 20

    Go out in style!

    visit my blog at http://ruthography.blogspot.com/ for more tutorials and fun things =)