Sunday, March 11, 2012

Not so simple tote bag from Martha Stewart Living

Martha bag.. (sweet fabric, eh!)
This little Martha bag is sweet and I like how one handle is looped through the other.   She suggested it was good for a beginner sewer and experienced sewer.   It looked like a simple bag but I just couldn't fathom how the sewing of those straps worked.

Since I have some fabrics on hand, I thought I'd give it a try.    The free pattern and instructions are here.  I went to Staples to enlarge the pattern.  It says to enlarge it by 200%, but I found that was a bit too big for my first bag.  I used a 175% enlargement and the width of the bag is about 10" wide.   

There are 7 steps to making this bag.  I completed steps 1 - 6 with no problem.  Then in a few simple words, step 7 was a complete stumper.  
Steps 1 - 6 were no problem.
Turning under 1/4 inch on both lining and main fabric, is harder than it looks. 



I thought I could sew it from the inside... Wrong!!

In the end, I finished it.
After I finished the bag, I went in to see if it was just me.. But I found the straps awkward and I would not say this was a beginner project.    I should have read through all the comments before starting the project.   I wasn't the only one who had difficulty.    Some of the suggestions recommended using the Allpeoplequilt version here.  It's a little different in that it has pockets inside and uses batting.  But the most important part is that it has a totally different technique for putting it together.    It looks easier.



2 comments:

Donna's chitchat said...

What a fun bag, though. Are you going to make more?

Anonymous said...

One of my girls made the Allpeoplesquilts version. She is not an accomplished sewer, but had no problems at all with the pattern.

Sandra