craftgrrl | My First Tote Bag - Verbosity Filter DISENGAGED

First: the teaser. :-) Also, a warning to put your sunglasses on. I nearly went blind sewing this thing.

Second, the question: has anyone used Thermoweb fusible vinyl coating on their projects before? As you can see, it's a clear coat of vinyl to waterproof your totally cool fabric so you don't have to settle for Grandma's florals or 80's style abstract in the ready-made outdoor waterproof prints. This is a test scrap. The vinyl has coated the fabric very nicely, and I even got the flash at a non-glaring angle (woo-hoo, Elfie! for taking a decent picture!). I can still prise up the corner of the patch, pretty easily, though. Has anyone else used this kind of thing, and if so, have you found it to scratch up easily, look worn out quickly, and otherwise looked great for two weeks before compulsively getting your fingernails under every last scrap? I wanted to use this to waterproof the bottom of my tote, but I forgot to bring it with me to my sewing club meet when I was cutting the fabric, and once the seams were sewn, I wasn't going to try to put it on after the fact -- too many angles, too many air bubbles, and I finally got my mojo going, so I didn't want to wreck my first inspired piece in ages. I may do a few more for my market table, though, hence the question.

OK. On to tote goodness under the cut. (That would be lots of words, and 8 more pics, all under 600 pixels in size. This may not be dial-up friendly.)

Cross-posted to a few places.

Oh, of COURSE there's an Urban Threads design embroidered on it! You didn't think I'd be able to resist that, did you? I need this tote for my SEWING MACHINE! This is the Urban Threads logo, by the way. It's available free on the Urban Threads website, as both machine and hand embroidery design. With clipart and such for stencilling and decoupage.

I actually picked these fabrics out from a design set at Fabricland with this tote in mind. It's not a stash-buster. I had this challenge in my head a couple of years ago to make something, make it well, and make it UNBEARABLE to look at. Now that it's all come together... I think it's kind of cute. Oops.

Anyway: this is Kwik-Sew 3464, with a few modifications that don't change the way the tote looks so much as how it was constructed. I'm not giving a tutorial, but I am going to show you how I worked around the changes.

I had only .25m of each of the yellow fabrics (in case your eye can't focus on them, they're polka-dot, checks, and stripes). The pattern pieces themselves were too big for these lengths, so I had to piece them carefully. This means I went with a ladder climbing the ends, and checks on the bottom... and crawling 2" up the sides. I had to measure carefully and match my seams diligently. It's a lot easier than it sounds.

The green piece JUST fit on my slightly more than .5m cut of green fabric, and that's all I could get out of it. So if you want to bust some stash using this tote pattern... that's what you need.

The stars print is the lining. I quilted the lining, but not the outer shell, as it's just WAY too busy. Also, because this tote has to carry a sewing machine, and my Workhorse is not made of marshmallows and feathers, I needed some serious structural support. I fused the outer casing to heavy canvas. (Ouch. Cut the canvas in a single layer, OK? My thumbs and palms are still aching, and I did my cutting on Tuesday morning.) You can sort of tell in this picture that the fusible web failed a bit - where the green fabric bubbles somewhat above the Urban Threads logo. This is OK: I only needed it to stay put while I was constructing the tote.

Note the black cotton web for the handles. In the Kwik-Sew pattern, the handles are two different pieces, with the ends stitched to the sides of the bag and hidden inside the front pocket. I didn't do that; the sewing machine needs more reliable support than a "hike up the socks" handle.

The pattern called for quilting the pocket piece, basting it to the front piece, and then treating the two as one through the rest of the construction. Because I made the handles as a cradling harness, I had to first stitch the two end pieces (checks-and-stripes) and stitch them to the bottom of the green sides. Then I stitched one continuous loop of cotton web, made sure nothing was twisted, carefully lined up the handles so they would be even at the top, and stitched that loop down. THEN I had to deal with a raw edge in the pocket, as it had to be applied to the front of the bag AFTER the bottom seam had been sewn. (A serger takes care of stray and frayed threads in there, but I was too lasy to set mine up on my table crowded with huge fabric pieces and other WIPs. It's for me, so I don't really mind having a few threads.)

Anyway, I stitched the pocket upside-down into the ditch of the bottom seam, folded it up over itself, and basted it to the sides where you see the pins in this pic. It took a bit of fiddling to make sure the seam on the pocket checks would line up with the seam on the bottom piece as it folded up the sides. Easy, but fiddly.

We'll take a moment here to view the green print up close... and I just want to brag that I can hardly see that diagonal seam join on the bias tape binding the top edge of the pocket. I had barely enough of the stripey fabric to make the binding for one pocket. I had to use a different green fabric to bind the other side's pocket. In case you're wondering: it's just to the left of the button. I could have done both pockets in the stripey binding IF I had cut it across the grain, but then the stripes would be little square bars, and the curve would have looked puckered. This had to be cut on the bias.

There's another mod to the pattern: I didn't want the pocket gapping as I inevitably filled it with sewing machine stuff, so I added a button and elastic loop closure to the middle of the pocket. The button's a dark brown, not black, but it was the only one I had that was both round and big enough for the bag. I think it works well enough.

Now that I examine the pictures a little more closely as I write up my construction technique, I realize I could have stitched the cotton web handles to the POCKET instead of the tote shell, and the pockets would then not have gapped in transit, because the handles would be holding them closed. On the other hand, the handles would then be pressing whatever's in the pocket into the machine, and maybe I don't want sharp stuff sticking through and scratching up my machine body. Things to think about if you decide to do this pattern yourself. :-)

The finished product! Let's talk about that zipper on the top. I wanted something besides the fold-over button closure in the pattern, since I often take my sewing machine for car rides. Containment is important. First thing, I had to use a separating zipper. 18" long was just long enough to have a couple of "tongues" sticking out on each end, allowing me to open the bag completely and lift the machine in and out with ease... and installing a separating zipper was so much easier than a non-separating. :-)

But the pattern would have me bind the edges again with tape, the way the pockets were bound. This means, while not changing the overall LOOK of the tote so much, I had to drastically change the construction technique.

So back to the side seams: when I constructed the exterior and lining separately, I stitched those up, but stopped 4" short of the top on each seam. I also left a HUGE turning gap in one of the bottom seams in the lining. Then I inserted the exterior into the lining, right sides together, and sandwiched the zipper edges. Each stitching line stopped 1/4" short of the edges - the standard Kwik-Sew seam allowance. Then I stitched the top ends (stripey sides) together. THEN I finished the top 4" of each side seam, up to the corners. It sounds complicated, but this is the EASY way to do it. I clipped the stripey curves, notched the zipper curves WITHOUT cutting into the zipper tape, and turned the bag right side out. I pointed out all the corners and finger-pressed all the curves... and decided against top-stitching the edges. The fabric layers were just too thick at this point, and the stitching lines would be wobbly and possibly interfere with the zipper movement. As in the original pattern, both ends of the tote are open. If I do another zippered version of this tote, I will probably square out that top curve to make it lay flat when the tote is full. As it is, I'm quite satisfied.

OK, we're not quite done yet. :-) The Kwik-Sew pattern called for inserting the mason board you see at the bottom of the bag BETWEEN the lining and the exterior. For ease of care (washing!), I didn't hide the board. I had some kind of grand plans to nail little knobs or feet to the bottom, like you see on small pieces of luggage or heavy-duty totes, but A) I couldn't find them locally; B) I wasn't going to make a trip into Toronto just to get four little feet; C) I haven't been feeling well lately, so I didn't even check out hardware stores (I was told Lowe's, Home Hardware, or Home Depot might have these things, in case you're interested). And finally, I would like to be able to just throw this thing in the washing machine, instead of scrubbing it with a soft-bristled brush and hanging it to dry. If I need to clean this thing, or even change its purpose from carrying a sewing machine to carrying YARN or FABRIC, I can lift out the board and be done. The board is essential for carrying a sewing machine, however, as I don't want the bag collapsing around the machine as I lift it.

See how happy and comfy he looks in there... (Yes, he's a he. I anthropomorphise all of my things. I talk to them, too. Only my car talks back, though. :-)

This is The Workhorse: the machine on which most of my work gets done.

BTW, my 10lb cats fit in here, too, but those pics are on another camera, and that camera is in my husband's coat pocket... which is on my husband at the moment. I figure this could be a cat carrier in a pinch, for an emergency trip to the vet if my car breaks down. Bruce Lee (my boy cat) is more or less OK with being in the dark confines of a zippered-up bag. Valerie (the girl-cat) will kill me if I do that to her again, though.

And last up: ACTION SHOT!