Squid Bag

I loved this squid fabric* at first sight but put off buying it for over a month (it was pricey), until there was barely any left on the bolt. Buy it or do without is a great motivator. 

 Front

Fortunately it’s 52” wide barkcloth so the 2/3 yard I got was plenty. And by “plenty” I mean there’s a 8-ishx10” scrap left over. Plenty!

 Back

The pattern is “Simple Tote Bag” by The Seasoned Homemaker. It’s well written, easily adjustable size-wise, and makes a great bag.

I knew from the start I wanted one squid motif inside the bag, so I added a lined pocket big enough to hold my phone on one side and assorted junk treasures on the other.

I also enlarged the interior/exterior pieces to 18”, rather than 13; lengthened the straps to 24”; added fusible fleece to the squid fabric (note to self - washing the barkcloth makes the fleece soooo much easier to attach.) (Also, next time change to a denim needle *before* the needle bends and the sewing machine makes those scary noises);

added a keyring to match the straps; and increased the boxed corners from 3” to 5”. 

 Before pressing

And yes, I’m pretty proud I got 3 of the 4 boxed seams lined up and the 4th was only off a smidge. Whoohoo!

This took me the better part of 8 hours (fussy cutting is sloooooooow) and I’m ridiculously thrilled with how it turned out. Can’t wait to take it out and show it off!

* Fabric and bag pattern idea are from Roxanne’s.