More sewing! I’m on a roll!
A few years ago I refashioned this conference tote bag* with an old t-shirt. I used it until poor Siouxsie started to get holes. Amazingly, the canvas tote underneath showed practically no wear. I think it might be indestructible.
So I re-refashioned it. I have another black tote and I’m thinking of making a set. I really love this fabric.
*Wow. Did you click on that link? My blog photos have really improved over the past few years!
During the past week, this bag has carried my laptop through the airport, been my purse to a wedding, and toted stuff to the beach. That’s a lot of jobs for one bag. I’m happy to say it performed all of its required duties wonderfully. And it looked pretty darn cute, too. Here’s how I planned the design:
Size
Most importantly, this bag needed to be large enough to fit my laptop, but small enough to meet airline carry-on luggage guidelines. I checked the FAA and NWA website and both set my limit at 45 linear inches. Mine turned out to be 13.5 x 16.5 x 4 inches, or 34 linear inches. Part of me wished I had made it a little bigger, but there’s less room for your bag under an aisle seat, so in the end, this size worked great.
Inside
I wanted a separate sections for my laptop and my other things. I created two pockets and added a tie to the laptop side. When I used this as a purse, the laptop side was filled with fun things for distracting my daughter, like coloring books, story books, stickers, etc. At the beach, it held my book and knitting project.
Outside
A zipper closure was essential. I didn’t want anything to fall out during airport screening and I didn’t want any sand getting inside. Durability was important, also. The outside is an upholstery fabric and the inside is a cotton canvas.
How-to
This bag is basically an oversized zipper pouch with handles and two inside large pockets. It seems silly to write up a tutorial when there are so many great ones already out there. For this project, I referenced the following:
Adding the handles was easy. I just sandwiched them between the outside fabric and zipper when I was sewing it all together. I reinforced the handles with a few rows of extra stitching.
stash: Fabric came from this remnant sale. Zipper was thrifted.
Thanks to some artful sewing inspiration, I’ve finished a project that has been sitting in the to-do pile for way too long.
I wanted to turn one of my ’80s Siouxsie shirts into a tote, but didn’t want a typical floppy t-shirt bag. My friend was planning to throw away (yes, throw away!) this black conference tote. You know the kind: plastic-y canvas material covered in screen-printed logos.
I used the bag to measure my pieces of the t-shirt and boxed the bottom of both; sewing through the canvas was easier than I thought! Then I slid the t-shirt over the canvas bag, folded down the top and stitched all the way around. I stitched in some velvet ribbon for a tie closure.
This was such an easy way to make a t-shirt bag. I’m really happy with the results and can’t wait to start using it!
recycle: t-shirt came from my closet, tote bag saved from the landfill, velvet ribbon ties from thrifted notions in my stash