Tinker Tote!

Guys – I made a bag! An actual, real, three-dimensional bag. It’s a miracle.

AND – it turned out pretty good if I’m allowed to say so.

I got the motivation from a Craftsy class.  I’m sure you’re all shocked.  I may have an obsession. The Tinker Tote bag is the focus of Tara Rebman’s Quilt-As-You-Go: Patchwork Bags course.  I watched the class a few months ago and did a little experimentation to try the quilt-as-you-go method. Everything went smoothly but I was still feeling a bit overwhelmed by the concept of making this tote bag complete with snaps and a zipper pocket.  This past week, I decided that it was time to get over my fear and give it a try!

Tara is a fabulous teacher and went though every technique at a beginners pace.  Thank goodness!

The most time-consuming part was making the bag panels.  I used leftovers from the two quilts that I made with Bonnie and Camille’s April Showers line.   Thankfully, it wasn’t too hard!

The only bad part?  I destroyed my craft room while hunting through all my scraps! I had to share this on IG along with everyone else sharing their craft room using #honestcraftroom.

I had just barely enough of the raindrop fabric to cut out some lining. Phew!

We were supposed to pick out one style of pocket, either the zippered or basic pocket.  Feeling motivated, I decided to do one of each on each side!

I put a divider in the basic pocket that fits my phone perfectly.  Pretty and functional!

She showed a technique for adding a zipper pocket that I hadn’t seen before.  So easy! Next time, I think I’ll make the zipper window a little narrower though.

It even has cute fabric in the lining!

Adding snaps was a breeze, thanks to her examples!

I even managed to box the corners!  Even with my walking foot, I had a hard time going through the layers.  Each bag bottom is made with linen backed in interfacing, with a layer of batting and canvas.  Heavy duty. Hopefully this bag will last me a long time!

The last step was to add the binding.  Not going to lie, that was hard.  Tara said it was a “lesson in awkwardness” and she wasn’t lying.  Small throat space + large, sturdy bag = hard work.

We were supposed to do both sides of the binding by machine but after the difficulty adding the first side on by machine, I decided to finish it off by hand.  I think that looks better anyway!

I can’t wait to carry it everywhere!