Tuesday - Tutorial

So...I'm kind of late posting today because this took me a little longer to make than I anticipated. I've decided to get back to me roots (so to speak.) Now, this may come as a shock to you...but I actually used to be a pretty decent sewer. I don't know if you could go so far as to call me a seamstress, but I could sew. My grandma taught me. I used to sew quite a bit. In fact, at one point in time I even thought I would become a clothing and textiles home economics teacher. When I was in high school I even had my own little business making and selling gymnastics leotards at my gymnastics club. Then I came to BYU...all excited to begin my career. I took my first clothing and textiles class. It was a pattern making class. It was horrible! I hated it, got a terrible grade, and as a result gave up my venture into the clothing and textiles arena. Well, like I said, I've decided it's time to get back to my roots. At one point in time I actually did have a talent in this area, however, you know the parable about the talents....if you hide them away, they get taken away from you...it's true. It's been quite a while since I've sewn anything. In fact...Rylen's never even seen my sewing machine before, and Jackson commented that "...it's been a long time since I've seen you sew anything." as he stood gawking over my shoulder as I sat at the sewing machine. Needless to say, I'm a little rusty. With that in mind, here's the project for the day....


A tote bag.
I'm not going to give you an actual tutorial for this bag because I didn't come up with the pattern. However, you can find an excellent tutorial at Mama's Pocketbook, which is where this FREE pattern came from.
I'll simply tell you what I liked and didn't like about this pattern:


Likes -

It was fairly simple. (Given the fact that I haven't sewn in several years, and I was able to make this in a couple of hours, I'd say it was pretty easy!)
Love the boxed corners. (Sorry...they're hard to see with these pics, but the tutorial shows them well.)
Love that it is reversible. (As my kids would say, "...when it gets dirty on one side, you can use the other.")
Love that it was cheap. (I didn't buy anything to make this tote...I went scrounging through old boxes of fabric, however, if you did need to buy materials, it uses very minimal fabric.)
Love the top-stitching. (Since I didn't actually go out and purchase anything and I didn't have any matching thread, I decided that I would use some top-stitching to accentuate the fact that the thread didn't match...and I like how it turned out.)

Dislikes -

It's not big enough. (I wanted a bigger tote...at least big enough to carry a binder OR multiple coloring books and supplies to church in. This tote would be big enough to carry my scriptures and a small manual in...or about the size of a purse. Next time I make this I will definitely make it bigger. It really wouldn't be that difficult.)
I didn't put in any type of closure at the top...mostly because I just couldn't find the one I wanted, but it would look better with one.
Those are really my only complaints...other than the fact that my stitching looks horrible because I couldn't get the sewing machine to work correctly, but that has nothing to do with the actual construction of the tote itself.

I'll have to give it another try one of these days...tweak a few things, maybe even splurge and buy some cool fabric to do it, but if you're looking for a fun and easy little tote to make this is a good one. Have fun!