As mentioned in my last post, I had enough of the fabric leftover from my Maria dress to make a matching tote. I even had enough to do pattern matching of the roses around the top! This is the Hattie Tote pattern, also from Charm Patterns. I did decide to buy some coordinating fabric for the inside although I had enough fabric that I’m sure I could have made it work, but I think it looks better with a solid lining. The bamboo handles I picked up on Amazon.
The pattern itself is rather straight forward, although attaching the handles was pretty challenging. You’ll definitely be manipulating your bag carefully around your machine. I recommend using a zipper foot so that you have more clearance.
For stabilizing the bag itself, the pattern calls for decovil interfacing. I didn’t feel that it was heavy enough, gave it enough body, so I did 2 layers. I don’t know if I got an old batch of decovil or what, but I had a real hard time getting that stuff to fuse to the fabric. If I were to do this again, I’d use soft & stable to stabilize the outside and SF101 for the inside, following the techniques of Sew Sweetness. Based on the many bags I’ve made from Sew Sweetness patterns, that gives a much smoother outside and is stiffer/has more body.
And if my inner pocket looks surprisingly tiny, that’s because I accidentally sewed it the wrong direction. It should have been wide and not too long, but mine is narrow and long. Oops. It still does what I need it to.
I liked having the matching tote from the start, but I was otherwise on the fence about the bag after I initially made it. However, I’ve actually used it several times already. It’s quite spacious so I can toss all the things into it and not worry. Especially helpful for costume events when I want a bag that doesn’t look too modern. The only thing is that the handles can be a bit uncomfortable if I’m holding it for long periods of time so next time I make this, I may put in fabric handles just to make it a bit more comfortable to carry (despite the fact that it will make it less historically representative).
