Creating Tote Bags

... and a few bugs

A few weeks ago, I posted about an awesome cause that was the brainstorm of MJ.

I pretty much immediately started working on it! Went to the local fabric store; in this case, WalMart. Yep, the town I live in is so small that the closest "real" fabric store (or a Hobby Lobby even!) is an hour away! So, yeah, if I need a fabric fix in a hurry to the WalMart it is! Don't get me wrong; they have lovely fabrics. But there is something to be said about walking through acres of lovely fabrics and touching all of those textures! But that's another story!



I picked up three different types of "happy" fabrics and coordinating liners. I bought around a yard of each. So I ended up with 6+ yards of fabric. I will admit that I did not pre-wash them. I was too excited to get going! You have to understand this slump that I was in! I NEEDED to sew something!

So I jumped right in using this tutorial. Of course, I couldn't just follow the directions. Nope, had to change it up a bit and put my own spin on it. Why sew if you aren't going to personalize it! :) In my case, I added some of the following:

• pockets - some on two sides; others on one; other with none
• button closure
• snap closure
• elastic/button closure

Because I'm such a klutz, I find it important to always have some type of closure on my totes. I'm always knocking them over. Even a simple small closure can help contain some of the chaos.

Here is a picture of the four of the six bags that I have completed:

Why only four you ask? Simple, I gave my mom two of them for her birthday! Yep, I will admit. I got so caught up that I forgot to find her something! So I asked her if she wanted one or two of the bags I had made. She was so happy to get something that I had made! I am glad that I was able to get a "two-fer" out of this project. I'll be donating these four bags to a worthy cause but also made my mommy very happy!

I still have another two to four I want to make with this fabric:

Yes, Marcus insisted on helping with the photos. 

I can't wait to get this together. Depending on how things go, I'll hopefully be able to get all of these mailed out by Monday. I don't want to miss the deadline! :)