Sunday, April 20, 2014

Beach Towel Tote Bag



My first commissioned job!  My sister's coworker saw someone with a beach towel tote bag, and instantly wanted one herself.  My sister said something along the lines of, "I think my sister could make that."

Have I ever made a tote bag before?  No.  I have made a few draw string bags, so I took that idea for boxing out the bottom, making a duplicate out of lining fabric, and basting the two together.  Then I cut out two wide strips from the towel, sewed them together, and sewed one side of that to the bag (matching right sides).  Next I made the handles out of the same lining fabric and attached them to the top strips, folded the strips over, and slip-stitched to the inside of the bag.  Voila!  Not bad for throwing it together in one night/morning.  Turned out really cute.

I also inserted a tag while slip-stitching.  I love-love-love my sewing machine, thanks mommy for the best Christmas present ever!  It can sew character stitches!  So I sewed my "business" name FOUND FRILLS onto a scrap piece of fabric, with a contrasting overcasting stitch around the edges (purple fabric and orange thread, love that color combination, I always have).  It came out crooked and wonky, being the first time I ever used the character stitching, but oh well I think it still looked cute.

I should have taken more pictures, I'm really bad about that.  Need to get into the hang of it.  I always make fun of Chris for always taking pictures, but sometimes that's a good thing.