Blue Butterflies and Roses Tote

This blue butterflies and roses tote was my first tote I plan to sell.  I wanted to use the same pattern I used last since it was fresh on my mind.  I didn't have to read the instructions a dozen times before each step, because I remembered them.

The butterflies actually have silver glitter around their wings, and the purple fabric has gold print, so this tote sparkles.

I pre-washed the fabrics, and amazingly the glitter did not wash out, so I know this is a good quality fabric.  I wanted to use a white zipper, but ran out.  I have six more white zippers on order, but in today's pandemic economy, they can take weeks to get here.

I felt it was time to up the ante by including some interior pockets.  Next time I'll make them deeper.  You can barely see them in this shot because the bottom piece popped up in front of them.  It's summer here, so the sun blinds me and I can't see what I'm photographing.  It's too hot for me to want to do a retake.

Time to move on to making the next bag.  When I have enough of them, I'll open a little online shop.

Teal and Tan Tote

I made this latest tote for my daughter-in-law's grandmother, who expressed an interest when my daughter-in-law opened a birthday gift from me, which was that purple and teal tote I made a while back.  I asked my daughter-in-law's mother what her mother's favorite colors were, and she said teal, then tans and browns.

It turned out that I had a lot of tans and browns, but not many that worked well with teal.

I also had tons of blue fabrics, but none that were teal.

I searched high and low online for some teal fabric, but it was all sold out.  I guess that's the most popular color for face masks.  So, I searched online for any local stores that sold fabric.  If worse came to worse, I was going to go to Walmart, but I did find a small quilt shop in the next city.  My husband and I drove our there, but I couldn't get into the quilt shop because they were only allowing curbside pick up for online orders or appointments to shop inside the store.  I walked away dejected, and we stopped at a sports grill for lunch.

It suddenly hit me that I could call the store and ask if I could set up an appointment for half an hour in the future.  Amazingly, they agreed to my terms, so after eating lunch, I walked into the shop, expecting to be the only customer.  Instead I was shocked to see that the store was packed with women!  It was like this secret society of quilters hiding out together in a fabric shop.  We were all required to wear face masks and wash our hands, which I did.

I looked around a little bit for teal fabrics, but it wasn't easy because they were organized by manufacturer and theme, not color.  A saleslady helped me, and I asked for a yard of any fabric that looked like it might work.  I thought I was done collecting teals until I saw this corkboard pattern  with gold flecks.  I decided to substitute tan with gold.

I already had the gold and white fabric for the contrast of the pockets and straps.  I used a purple, gold and teal fabric that I got at the local shop for the lining.

I had hoped to be proficient at sewing these totes by now, but I made a major mistake with this one.  I struggle to read the instructions, because they jump around so much.  They start out showing me how to construct Tote D, and then tell me to follow the rest of the directions from Tote B.  The Tote B directions jump around a bit and some of the steps sound repetitive.  They also use the word "lining" for the actual fabric lining and two types of interfacing, so it gets confusing.

Anyway, when I make the totes with the one big wavy pocket, I construct the lining separately and attach it to the tote last.  However, with these zippered totes, I have to attach the lining in pieces as I put to outside of the tote together.  I forgot about that and put the outside together and sewed the entire lining separate.  When I realized my mistake I had the choice of ripping out all the seams of the tote, which were probably the most perfect seams I'd ever sewn, or use my ingenuity to figure out how to attach the lining in a new way.  I ended up tacking the lining to the interfacing, and you can't even tell, unless you turn the bag inside out.

Here's a close up of the contrast fabric...

I'm getting more comfortable making the pockets and working with zippers.  I've been making these totes as gifts for people in part because I think that people need something to brighten their day right now, and in part because I don't want to charge anyone for a product I am just learning how to make.  However, this may be the last bag I'll give away for free, because stores are charging $13 a yard for fabric now, and that's too steep for me.  Most of my fabric stash, which I compiled probably 15 years ago, cost around $3 to $5 a yard and it's still in good shape.  Thank goodness I had the foresight to stock up before fabric got too expensive.  Now I've just got to use it all before I die.

Also, I think I'm going to stop asking people what their favorite colors are, because I always end up in a conundrum and have to buy more fabric.  From now on, I'm only going to use what I already have, put it together, and see who wants to buy the finished products.