Playing with Placemats - Part 3

This third installment of playing with placemats really points out my complete and utter failure to make a great tote from placemats. It seeems that others can make the most charming tote bags while I just seem to make a mess. My first try was with two placemats to make a large tote. Here:s how it came out:

As you can see it does not look much like a tote bag. In fact it is not really a tote bag at all but could be used as a slip case for a laptop. I failed for a couple of reasons. First I added that wondeful trim before I really thought through the process. Being heavily beaded I broke a lot of beads and a couple of needles attaching it to the placemat. The two placemats I used, while lovely black corduroy, were very, very stiff and thus had to sew together. I had a matching napkin, so I used that for a velcroed closure. I had wanted to bag the bottom but the stiffness of the placemats discouraged me.

My second attempt was a little more successful. What do you think?

I had trouble with this one as the placemats used, one for the interior and one for the exterior, were also very stiff and thus, hard to sew through. I used another napkin to make loops to attach the beaded handles and the rest of it to add a zippered pocket in the interior. The beaded handles were leftover form a previously abandoned cigar box purse project. I think I will try ths one again but with a less hard/stiff placemat and limit it to one placemat.

For very little investment ($1 - $3 each) you too can play with placemats and proably get good results with flexible placemats and all those bits that have been aging in your stash just waiting for an opportunity to shine.

Good Luck!