Super Tote finish!

Back in October when I laid out my final quarter FAL plans I pulled out this little stack of fabric with the intention of making a Super Tote.

I hadn't made a bag for some time, and hadn't made a Super Tote for myself at all, just this fun ladybird one for my (ladybird mad) MIL back in 2013.

I didn't really make any progress at all until the start of November when Hannah and I decided to make Super Tote making our project for our Leeds MQG sewing day. I spent a couple of evenings frantically cutting and interfacing and doing all the prep that you have to do before you can actually start sewing a bag. And then on the Saturday, we sewed and laughed, and laughed and sewed. And just about ended up with 2 unlined bags.

We made a finishing date and Hannah came round one evening the next week and we sewed until about 11.30pm. And hurrah! We we all finished. 

Her's is the much more cheerful bag on the left!

Apparently the late finish rendered me incapable of reading the pattern properly and so when I used my bag at the Harrogate knitting and stitching show I was dismayed to find the top edge rolling down. A couple of emails were sent to the lovely Anna aka Noodlehead who very politely suggested I read the last step of the pattern properly. I did so, and four simple lines of stitching sorted the problem out perfectly.

This isn't a day to day bag for me as I need a messenger strap for hands free child wrangling, but it's great if I need a bit of extra capacity and won't need to be carrying it and small child about. I'm thrilled with my fabric choices, it matches my new Seasalt coat perfectly, and I'm pleased that as before I added an interior zip pocket as well as one of the gathered pockets. Every bag needs a zip pocket I reckon.  

The straps, gusset and interior pocket are made from Essex yarn dyed linen in black. The main panels and main pocket are lovely metallic prints from Botanics by Carolyn Friedlander. The piping and main pocket lining are Botanics crosshatch prints and the whole thing is lined in a perfect metallic starry print I bought from Simply Solids (ooh look, it's on sale right now, go buy some!). It is all interfaced with a woven interfcaing (Pellon SF101 equivalent) and some fusible fleece. I have since bought the recommended Craft Fuse for next time though. 

This seemed an unlikely finish at the start of October, but here it is and done.

I definitely have an appetite to make some more of these ... watch this space.