Those 241 Totes and Some Tips

You know what's hard? Making something and not sharing it. 

You know what's really hard? Making three things and not sharing them!

Now that my Pay it Forward gifts have been received I can finally show them. I know, all the cool bloggers have secret projects and when they get to do their big reveal it's something like a book deal! Or fabric line! Or sponsors! And here I am revealing...bags. But they were fun to make, and hey, any finish at this house deserves some fanfare!

I used the wonderful 241 Tote pattern by Anna of Noodle-heads. Such a great pattern! I highly recommend it. The first bag I made went to Sarah at FairyFace Designs. 

Since I made her's first, Sarah's bag was a bit of a learning experience. Not that there were any problems due to the pattern or anything, it just took a little longer and I made a couple minor changes to the next two. 

Next, I made one for Annabella of Life's Rich Pattern...

and one for Jennifer of Knotted-Thread.

I made the second two assembly-line style and they went together much quicker. These bags use a magnetic snap, and for some reason I thought it would be more complicated than it was. It was so simple! I will say that on Sarah's I used one from JoAnn's and it almost sticks together too well. Like, I hope she doesn't have to use two hands to get her bag open! For the others I used snaps that I purchased from Being Bags on etsy. Besides being a much more economical way to go, I thought these snaps seemed higher quality. Also, I noticed the other day at Joann's that if you buy the magnetic snaps from the Notions section, they are quite a bit more than the ones from the bag-making aisle, where the purse handles and those kind of things are. 

I did a couple things to the bags (maybe not on Sarah's...sorry, Sarah) that I think helped them look a little more professional.

See how that stitching going along the top of the linen is a little more substantial? I used the double-stitch feature, so the needle goes over the same stitch twice. I totally don't know if that is the right thing to call it, but that's what I'm going with. Here's what it looks like on my machine...

That number 3, there? That's it. I would guess that most machines have it, but it may have a different picture for it. I'm pretty sure my old (err, 1982 model...not OLD) Singer had it. I also used that stitch when doing the top-stitching on the straps. 

Here's another thing that helped my top-stitching...

Here's the back...

Do you have one of these? It is a blind-hem foot and came with my machine. See how it has that ridge in the middle and the other part is a little higher? If you use this foot and move your needle over a bit, you can put the edge of the fabric you are top-stitching right where that ridge is and it will kind of glide right along that and keep your stitching straight. Does that even make sense? Ok, I just ran to the machine and took these pictures to help, since I don't think I'm making any sense...

Better? And yes, that's felt but it was what was on the table. I moved my needle over 10 clicks (2.5) to the left. Here's the top-stitching on Annabella's bag:

Much better than what I can do with just the regular foot on my machine. I don't know if any of you even care, but I thought I'd share since every bit helps for me.

I can definitely see myself making more of these bags and I just bought Anna's Go Anywhere Bag pattern, so I'll hopefully be trying it out soon as well.