It is always nice to find a pattern with a tutorial and/or a video that helps you with the project. the website SewCanShe has many wonderful tutorials and patterns that are perfect for experienced sewers and beginners alike. I recently decided to make a new smaller tote bag she had featured on her blog. It is the adorable canvas tote bag with pockets. I wanted to make it as written because I have plans to use the base pattern for another bag project. Therefore, I wanted to make a “muslin” of the project. Nothing new was purchased for this project -all fabrics and notions is from the Collection.

Luckily I had some black duck cloth that is the perfect weight for a tote bag. I followed the dimensions given in the blog post to cut my pieces. For straps I decided to use a cute apple cotton print. Years ago I made my daughter an adorable littIe sundress out of this fabric. Originally I thought I would add some HTV vinyl on the front with a cute school saying, but the outside pocket really is not quite big enough for what I had in mind.

Strap Construction

I cut out the cotton fabric and the fusible batting pieces. Here is what the straps looked like after i had finished sewing them. I added another row of top stitching just to make it look more balanced (at least to my eye).

After they were all sewn I attached them to the outside of both the front and back pieces.

Before attaching the straps I sewed the small pockets on each side (forgot to take any photos of that step). You have to sew the pockets on before attaching the straps. The strap placement hides the unbound edges of the pockets – ingenious!

You then place the front and back pieces right sides together and sew around the edges to attach them.

I had the worst time with the upper ends of this bag. I reread the directions numerous times, but I had to unpicked the top seam twice – all operator error. This meant that the project had to go to time-out in the sewing studio for a few days. I will be back soon to show you what I did after the time-out.