Tote Bag Tuesday

Another bag! 

This is the tote bag I was telling you that I finished the other day when I was so productive. I'm very happy with how it turned out, and am totally surprised that I didn't have to use my seam ripper. Like not even once. That's not to say that I didn't have any issues, but usually on a project like this I have to keep the ripper pretty close. 

Really, the only mistake I made was when I cut out the main panels for the bag. They were supposed to be 18" by 18", but apparently I cut them 18" by 17".  Only I didn't realize that until I had already put on the trim. On the first one, I put it on the 18" side but on the second I sewed it to the shorter side. You would have thought that extra inch of fabric hanging off the side would have tipped me off, but I just snipped it off, thinking I must have cut that a little too generously. So when I went to sew them together I finally figured it out and had to trim everything down to 17". Not a big deal really. Much better than ripping. 

For the most part, I used this tutorial from Sutton Grace, but I also got a little help from another tutorial at Make It and Love It. The main fabric of the bag is duck cloth so it is very sturdy and has a good shape. The contrasting trim and lining are two Denyse Schmidt prints.

On another note, last night I had to go to a meeting and afterwards I stopped to get gas and locked myself out of the car. So I spent 45 minutes sitting on the sidewalk outside the gas station waiting for my husband to come bring the spare key. I was sure I was going to get picked up for loitering because every cop in town must have needed a drink from the Jiffy Mart last night. Apparently they weren't too worried about it, because not one of them even spoke to me as they walked by. I haven't decided yet if that's a good thing or not.

Happy to be linking up to: