To tote or not to tote....

For Christmas I wanted to give my sisters-in-law all something useful but nice...and inexpensive but not cheesy. So I was shopping at a local fabric store during a sale and I found patterns for bags. I already had tons of fabric so I thought that would be the perfect thing.

So I purchased my items and left the store with the pattern and more fabric (what can I say, it's an addiction). It took me a while before I decided it was time to tackle the bags...and Christmas was fast approaching! So I glanced over the instructions and began cutting out all the pieces. That is my least favorite part. The tissue inevitabley tears at some point and it is so light that the slightest movement sends it flying around the room.

Okay, pattern cutting is done so now it's time to choose my fabrics and lining material. That was a bit more challenging than I thought. Trying to get the lining and shell to match and decide who would like what colors and prints. Well I finally made my selections and then it was time for my next favorite part (insert sarcasm here)...cutting the fabric. This isn't as bad as cutting the tissue patterns but still not my favorite part of this project. Once all my cutting is done I can now move on to what I consider the fun part...SEWING!

I like this part because I can really start to see things coming together. Whenever I make something the first time it usually seems to turn out better than the second one. I have no idea why this is but on my second I end up ripping out seams and redoing them because I sewed when or where I shouldn't have. So, my first bag gets done and I'm so proud of myself! I thought "wow, this looks like something that you would actually pay money for!" I've even created a few templates of my own that I am using for some of the bags & totes.

So with that in mind I decided I would try and make more now that the holidays are over. I sewed up a batch last week, took photos, uploaded them to picnik.com and made some minor adjustments. I spent the last couple of days listing them on Etsy (most of them basic totes and reusable gift bags) so only time will tell if they are worthy of being bought.

And just to note, my sisters-in-law all liked theirs :)