New Leaf Folding Totes Sewalong: Part 2

Continuing along with sewalong with a quick sneak peek above 🙂

Assembling the Bag

Now it’s time to put the bag together.

Match the corners and the seams in particular and stitch across. Repeat for the lining.

Then, press some nice creases to form the shape of the bag. You’ll want to do the reverse creases for the lining.

Pin the handles to the outside of the bag between the pairs of notches at the top.

And pin the band around the top of the bag over the handles.

Do a normal stitch between one pair of handles. Baste the rest of the way around.

Now slip the bag inside the lining. Pin matching the seams and notches at the top. And sew where you basted before.

This means you’ll be leaving unsewn the spot where you did normal stitching before. See the photo above.

At this point you’re supposed to hand sew that opening shut. I am rather averse to hand stitching so instead I chose to top stitch the seam between the bag and the top band. You’ll want to press that seam before you top stitch so it lays flat and doesn’t wrinkle on you.

Here’s how the inside turned out. It was pretty fast and I’m quite pleased with how it came out.

And the outside. Gives it a nice finished look.

Finally top stitch the handles to the band.

Attach the Pocket

We’re almost done! Just the pocket to attach.

Turn the pocket right side out and press the pocket flat.

And top stitch around the whole outside.

This will end up sealing up the opening you turned it through.

Next you’ll need to attach the scratch side of the velcro to the non-interfaced side. I forgot to take a photo of this part. Oops. But I’m sure you can figure out.

Center the pocket on one side of the bag and stitch into place using the guidelines on the patter piece.

Finally, fold the bag up, see where the velcro hits and attach the soft side of the velcro to that spot.

And you’re done!

Here’s the first part of sewalong if you missed it. Tomorrow I’ll show some finished photos.