Fabric Friday

Welcome to another edition of Fabric Friday!  I am so in love with sewing.  If only we had machines like we have today when I was in Home Ec, oh so many decades ago, I may not have been so intimidated by it!  I love it even more, though, that we have fabulously coordinated fabric from Stampin' Up!  There's no need to look through tons of fabric at the store trying to figure out if they go together.

Today's project is a super simple one!  If you can sew a straight-ish line, you're in business!  Actually, you could even handstitch this, since it's not a big project.

 I made this for one of my workshop hostesses recently.  I wanted to make her something different than just cards to thank her for hostessing during Sale-a-Bration and introducing me to some new friends.  I got a few packages of Flirtatious Designer Fabric for FREE as my Sale-a-Bration free products, and thought it would be a great time to use it.  I ran the fabric through my Big Shot, using the Scallop Square clearlit die.  Using our Big Shot this way makes it so simple.  There's no measuring with a ruler, definitely no scissors or rotary cutter cutting, and no need to make sure you have perfectly square pieces.  Plus, I am able to run through 8 layers of fabric together at once.

Please let me know if you need further instructions on making this tote.  It really is easy.

1. You need a total of 10 pieces of scallop sqaures.
2. I put pieces of batting between the squares and secured by sewing an X across each pair.  You've now created the panels.  You should now have 5 of these.
3. Then, I sewed up the sides, leaving the last (4th) side open.
4. Sew the top closed.  I stopped between each side, but you can also just sew straight across all four.  REMEMBER to insert your handle/ribbons on either sides 1 & 3 or sides 2 & 4.  I would pin these in place BEFORE you start to sew up all the tops.
5. Sew the bottom panel onto all four side panels.
6. Sew up the last side panel.
7. Embellish as desired.

I ironed on some fusible interfacing (follow manufacturer's instruction) on some scrap fabric to make it a little stiffer.  Then I ran the fabric through my new Fun Flowers die (wait till I show you some cards I made with it!).  I put small pieces of batting between each flower layer to make it a little more dimensional.  Lastly, I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch a small hole in the middle for the brad prongs to go through.  The brad is the Printed In-Color Designer Brads.  I hand sewed the flower onto the tote.

What do you think?  It's a cute little thing, huh?  You can definitely carry some inkpads, dimensionals, Tombow in it.  Or you can just fill it with treats like I did. :)  Hope you enjoyed this little cutie.  Please let me know what you think!