Ethel Tote

In my quest to use up some of my fabric, I sewed another tote. This one will go in our local library auction. I didn’t have enough of the ice dyed fabric, so added the yellow which I low immersion dyed last month for another project.

This is a free pattern from Swoon.

This pattern goes together pretty fast once all of the pattern pieces are cut out.

Adding the SF 101 interfacing and the foam takes a little time, but then it’s time to sew.

The last thing, before giving the purse a final press, is top stitching the opening.

And it’s done!

This was a fun bag to make. However, if you’ve never sewn a purse, I wouldn’t start with this one.

Since I like to use my dyed fabric, it takes me so long to select what I’ll be using. I seem to always run into the problem of not having enough fabric for the whole project because I usually dye in small pieces. Luckily, I had this yellow fabric that I had dyed over a yard for an upcoming project.

Swoon has a Facebook group which I joined that helped with questions and seeing others’ version of this and bags. With that group and my other FB sewing groups including Juki Junkies, I don’t feel so alone when I’m sewing. Everyone is so helpful. In fact, I have just cut out another Ethel Tote of the fabric that I made a tote with on this post. I’ll use some of their suggestions on the new tote.

The weather is getting a bit cooler. I really enjoyed wearing my jacket on my morning walk today. Have a great weekend. Check out all of the inspirational posts on Off The Wall Friday.