Color Theory with a Large Tote

I must have bags on the brain. 

Since having launched this blog with the bag theme, the ideas seem to have seeped into my creative subconscious.  I am looking at so many fabrics and techniques as bag projects!  Totes and zippered pouches were my first sewn items so it fits that the bags are hanging around again (lame pun intended).

I recently unboxed the latest fabric from Carrie Bloomston for Windham fabrics called Color Theory.  The colors and design created by the designer ,who is an artist and art teacher, spoke to me and commanded that I cut some yardage to take home.  Laid out together in my studio I immediately thought ‘large tote bag’!  I took the favorite elements of different bags I had sewn in the past to put together this large tote suitable for transporting quilt projects and bigger class supplies such as rulers. The finished size is around 20".   I am finishing a knit sweater as I write this and the knit work in progress seems to have outgrown it’s current project bag.  I created the sides of my new tote to be soft enough to fold down and use for my knitting.  Inner pockets keep supplies out of the way or another ball of yarn from tangling.

Next up is another bag sewn from a weaving that I did with Berroco Sesame and Malabrigo Rios yarns.  I am weaving in the warp ends (which is quite a task) and will add a liner and sew it into a cross body bag.  My fashion accessories selection is growing!

Do you ever have fabric tell you what it wants to be?  Do you have favorite elements of bags that you HAVE to have in your bags (like outside pockets for your phone?).   Tell us in the comments!

Make time to make something (and store it in a project bag while you do!)

Johanna