Library Tote Bag

For my niece's First Birthday, I made her a tote bag for schlepping her books back and forth from the library. This was my first foray into serious sewing since middle school home economics!

I looked up directions online for a tote bag, just to get a general idea of how to craft the bag. This tutorial about making a tote from a Martha Stewart Dishtowel proved to be the most valuable to me, even though I was using fabric.

First, I made a test bag with no liner, since I wasn't using a pattern. Urf--it was not pretty! In fact, it was so NOT pretty, I didn't even take a picture of it! I decided I would go ahead and make the bag and just be more careful. I made the bag, but ended up making three big mistakes: I sewed the lining on the wrong way, I reversed the thread on one of the handles (aqua thread on the brown background and brown thread on the aqua background--der), and I folded over the top of the bag so many times that I couldn't sew through it. With this bag, I learned a LOT and was able to make the final bag without a SINGLE mistake! I was even so confident that I sewed an interior pocket into the bag. I know, I'm a complete MANIAC!! haha

Miss E sure seemed to love her tote bag! Now if I could just get my a** moving and sew one for my daughter. I thought about that the other day when I was trying to hold my daughter, my purse, my coffee, AND three library books. Hey, I have fifteen other projects on my list, so give me a break, okay? I probably should make it before I forget how to do it! " )