Lined Canvas Tote Bag

I have been wanting to make some more bags, so when I found a tutorial for a lined canvas tote bag I knew I had to check it out! The tutorial can be found here and is created by The Inspired Wren.

I followed the tutorial exactly to create my first tote bag (shown in purple). The only thing I changed was I added a zipper pocket to the inside of the bag. You can't really see this, so for all intensive purposes it's the same as the tutorial!

I made the second tote (shown in black and white) as a gift. The recipient wanted more pockets and zip top closure. Hence I used the same base pattern, but added 2 inner zipper pockets, a lot of inner slip pockets, and zip top closure. I also used 4" strips for the handles instead of the suggested 3".

It would have been too difficult to sew the bag together as show in the tutorial, so I used some extra canvas and bound the top of the bag as you would a quilt. I am very happy with the result!

The purple one is starting to show some wear now. I made it this summer and I have been using it as my library book bag, so it has taken a beating! The black one was just finished this weekend and hasn't been used yet. I also added interfacing to help stiffen it up.

I used organic cotton duck canvas for the base and straps of both bags (purple here, black is sold out). For the body of the bag, I used a duck cloth print called Celestial Sun from Hobby Lobby (bought in store, but here is a link to it in another colorway). I spent a lot of time fussy cutting the print fabric to get the center pieces to line up nicely. I think the final effect is totally worth the extra time and fabric needed to achieve this.  

USA Quilt Finished

I finished my USA Map Quilt last week. I had to delay taking pictures though because of rain. My house doesn't have the best lighting so I always try to get pictures outside.

Sunset helped capture the quilting!

Anyway, I love how this quilt turned out! I free motioned quilted the whole thing on my small Brother CS6000i machine. I did a straight stitch around each state and then I did a zig zag stitch between each state to ensure the edges stay down.

Prior to quilting the oceans and shown with indoor lighting.

It then took me a while to decide how to finish out the rest, but I decided on quilting in Central America and Canada the best I could. I have not washed the quilt yet, so you can still see a little bit of the pink water soluble pencil I used to sketch the outlines in. I am debating doing the country outlines in a dark blue to make them pop more, but I'm waiting to hang the quilt before I do anything else.

For the oceans I just did a free motion pattern to try to make it look like water and differentiate it from the land.

Ready for binding!

The batting I used is Warm and Plush crib sized batting (made by Warm and Natural). This batting lack scrim so you have make sure to heavily quilt it in. I like how it has a higher loft than the normal Warm and Natural and how it is 100% without anything added to it. I tend to get my batting at JoAnn Fabrics when their batting is 50% off. If I can time it right, they sometimes have batting 50% off and offer an additional 10-20% off with coupon! I haven't seen the Warm and Plush at any other stores and the package says it's a limited time buy which is unfortunate since I really like this batting.

For binding, I used the same fabric that I did the state of Georgia in. The fabric is Gardenvale by Jen Kingwell for Moda in Black Swan Spots. I love how it framed the quilt and further accented Georgia!

Love that backing!

The backing I chose was Tula Pink's Lotus in Tomato. I chose this simply because I love this fabric. I intend to hang my USA quilt in the living room, so the backing really wouldn't be visible. Hence I just went with a fabric I just love!

In my last post about this quilt, In the Making had not published their pattern. Well, it is now available here!



Some extra shots of the quilt!

Part One of this post can be found here.