This week the new thing I tried was…sewing.

Yes, I have TRIED to sew before but by hand and only to fix holes, but I have never really tried to make anything.

This week I tried to make a tote bag. The kind of bag you would take to the farmers market or to the beach. Nothing too fancy. For this, I used some purple fabric and some purple string of the same color for the stitching.

I started by first finding a tutorial/step by step of how to make the bag and got the materials together.

Materials:

• pins, rulers (quilting rulers), quilting grid
• sewing machine
• fabric (one yard)
• tread
• fabric scissors or a rotary cutter
• iron and ironing board

After I had gotten all of those materials together I was ready to start. First I took the fabric and measured out a 60 by 9-inch piece and cut that. Then I cut 2 pieces that were 12 by 14 inches.

Once I stressed about trying to get all the sides even I took the 60 by 9-inch piece and folded it in half long ways. That means I did NOT fold it in half making it shorter, I folded it in half which made it thinner. Then I pinned it so it would stay as we sew it.

Next, take it over to the sewing machine. Sew it along the edge. Sew it all the way down. After that, turn it inside out. Then take it over to the ironing board and iron it so that it lays flat and looks real nice.

Then, after I did all of those steps it got really confusing. (At least for me since I don’t usually sew) It told me to sew the other pieces onto the longer piece which is the strap. After that, sew along the bottom. Once it is all sewn together, it is supposed to be turned inside out so that it is a bag. Then once again, iron the over the bag. It is done!!!

But… in reality, it took way longer than that. It took many hours to do this. The step that was sewing the sides to the strap, that one caused me some trouble. I had to redo it 3 times. I messed up so much, I sewed the wrong side so it was the opposite of where the seam should be. I used a tool that can remove stitched and undid it. Then two more times with the same problem, I got it right!

This was a really fun craft and I want to keep learning how to sew. Then I will be able to make even more things.

Have you ever sewed? If so, what have you made?