Easy Sew Fabric Tote Bag

This was one of the most fun and easy beginner sewing projects I have done in a while! This easy sew tote bag went together in a few hours and I can't wait to make another! And since I can't seem to go more than 2 weeks without buying fabric I'm guessing that I will be whipping one up soon.

My sister-in-law is having a milestone birthday (no, not turning 21. If it was I'd be buying her a drink not sewing her a bag) and I wanted to sew her something sweet and feminine, which sounds like I'm wanting to sew her up some lingerie but that's creepy. She is a crocheter so I started looking at free tote bag patterns that would be a good bag to hold her crochet crap and finally settled on this one from Poppyseed Fabrics.

The pattern is created so you actually sew the lining and the outer pieces at the same time as opposed to sewing two separate pieces and then sewing them together. That made it especially easy for a novice sewer.

I used a pretty scalloped dish towel (never used obviously!) as the fabric for the pockets.

This project used a light batting instead of interfacing to give the bag some weight. I think I prefer interfacing but it was good to try something different.

The original pattern used webbing for the handles but since I didn't have any I used 2-4 inch strips of fabric (1 yard long). To make each handle, I folded it down the middle, ironed the crease. Then opened it back up and folded each long side in toward the center crease and ironed. I opened it up completely and inserted a two inch by 1 yard strip of fusible interfacing and ironed according to the directions for the interfacing. Then I refolded the sides in toward the middle and then folded the whole thing along the middle crease.