Monday, January 18, 2010

Nov. 2009 Tote Bag

The final Tote Bag from Stitchin Heaven that I received was sent out in November last year. I finally made it the other day as a present for a friend's grandmother. I had made a bag for her earlier from a huge rice bag but it was suggested that a zipper closure would make it more secure.


Instead of sewing up another rice bag creation (the plastic dust really irritates my allergies) I decided to whip up the November tote for her.


I like it... do you?


The pattern is from the booklet called 'Quilters Get Organized' by Pattie Donham published in 2006. It is not an organizational handbook, just a book of decoratiing your baskets, bins, books and walls with quilt fabric and some embellishments.


The tote bag pattern and instructions were good except that at one point I discovered that instead of two vinyl covered exterior pockets, I could only get one from the fabric that was specified in the pattern and included in the kit.


I made a couple of changes... don't I always? Specifically I used:


  • fusible fleece rather than batting as the filler

  • lightweight interfacing to back the lining fabrics and pockets

  • a beat up rotary cutting mat to stiffen the bottom

  • a zipper to close the interior pocket

  • binding on the exposed edge of the vinyl of the exterior pocket

  • and one of my percious purse zippers to close the top of the tote.

This was an easy sew and I had enough bits of fabric left to make a small zipper case to add to the tote.



I hope the grandmother likes it even if its not made out of a rice bag!