Inspired by all the sewing my housemate Alicia and neighbor Daniela have been doing lately, I recently decided to try my hand at making a tote bag. I ordered some fun fabrics from ReproDepot, borrowed Daniela's sewing machine, and jumped in. I didn't have a pattern and don't really know how to sew, so I ran into a few snags...I had somehow forgotten my housemate Alicia's description of how it should all work, and sewed up both the bag and the lining completely. For a minute I was very puzzled about how to flip the bag over the lining, and realized it was impossible without ripping out a bunch of stitches. I also decided half-way through the process that it would be nice to make the bag reversible, which meant that I should have sewn on the bird cut-out and pockets before sewing the bag and lining together, so that the stitching would not be visible on the other side. Since I didn't, I ended up doing alot more hand sewing than was probably necessary. I never realized how much thinking ahead and planning you have to do in sewing! Happily, everything turned out ok in the end.
Here are some photos:
