Friday 12 April 2013

'It's "Tie-Dye" For!'

I know.  It's been a long time.  However, my "cunning plan" got a bit derailed by illness, other commitments, and my new, intense "Medical Terminology and Medical Transcription" studies.  So, I haven't had the time or "wherewithal" to create anything new ...until now.

My BFFs birthday was on 9th April, so it was a perfect excuse to make her something. I was itching to be back at my neglected and lonely sewing machine!

Not able to make up my mind exactly which project to pursue as a birthday gift, I broke down and called her.  A tote bag?! I can do that!

With my time being so limited these days, I wanted to make something nice (of course), but not too time-consuming ...or else I might have been tempted to grab a plastic bag, adorn it with a bow, sign it (using my best handwriting), and call it good; while telling myself, "Hey! It's the thought that counts.  Right? RIGHT?!"

I scoured my favourite go-to site AllFreeSewing for patterns - Eureka! I found a pattern for a Large Tote with Rounded Opening.

I had to modify it a bit because I didn't have the heavy canvas material used in that pattern; instead, I used heavyweight fusible interfacing on my chosen cotton fabric from my stash.  And, since neither my friend nor I are into flowery things, I opted for ribbon and buttons for decoration, instead of the flower motif featured on the pattern I used.

Luckily, I scored on an 8 oz. bag of assorted buttons on Ebay a while back - that assortment contained the perfect buttons for this piece! Yay!

I learned a few new tricks and techniques in the making of this tote, such as creating boxed corners to create more room to fit more ...stuff.

For the lining, I used plain, cotton flannel in hot pink, and plain black flannel for the handles (both from JoAnns) ...I liked the soft feel of the flannel - I'm a texture girl! :0)

The outer "rainbow tie-dye zebra print" material was actually from JoAnns remnant bin - I purchased it during a 50% off sale ...AND I got to apply my coupons! Woo-Hoo!

[I was originally saving the material to make a different sort of bag with it for my BFF.  I bought a commercial "hobo bag" pattern; but, still relatively new to sewing, I've been too much of a weeny to attempt to interpret pattern instructions yet.]

I did have to use decoration to disguise a minor flub in its creation.  Luckily, the bold print helped to hide where I had to use a bit of "stitch-witchery" ingenuity to hide a snafu where my machine needle broke: I had forgotten about the placement of one of my pins.  Oopsies!

Although, this project definitely had its "swear-y" moments, I still think it turned out well.

Hopefully, my BFF will like her new tote enough to think ...
'It's "tie-dye" for!'
FRONT of Tote



Ta-Da!!!
 
BACK of Tote