Simple DIY Monogrammed Tote

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With kids back in school, I’ve spent some time getting my home back in order.  In the process, I’ve finally organized all the fabric scraps I’ve collected over the years.  It feels SO good to have that done!  As an added bonus, I can actually see what fabric I have, and use it to make something – which is the whole point of saving fabric scraps anyway, right?  Do you have a stash of fabric at your house?  Maybe you’d like to make a little tote bag, too.  Read on for a quick tutorial:

Do you have everything?  Phew!  Now it’s time to get sewing.  Don’t get discouraged by the length of this tutorial, I promise this is a pretty simple project.  I just want to make sure you understand what you need to do one step at a time.

Creating Your Tote Bag – The Sewing Section

First of all, you need to prep all your pieces.  You’ll need:

     * 9-inch pieces of ribbon (cut 2)

     * 4 squares of fabric – I cut mine to be 11 inches square, but you’re welcome to go bigger or smaller.  I wanted my lining to be a different fabric than my main fabric, so I chose two complimentary fabrics and cut two of each one.

Once you have everything cut and ready to go, you need to get your pieces prepped for sewing.  You’re going to make two “tote bag sandwiches”.  Put your liner fabric on the bottom, pretty side up.  In the middle, goes your ribbon handle.  Pin it to the liner fabric to make sure it stays centered as you sew.  I pinned my ribbon in two inches from the edge of my fabric.  The top layer of your little sandwich is your main fabric, put that on pretty side down, so all the pretty parts of your tote bag will be on the inside of your sandwich.

Got it?  Make sure everything is pinned in place, then sew accross the top of each sandwich.  IMPORTANT:  Only sew the top edge of the sandwich.  When you’re done, you want to be able to pull the two fabric squares apart and have the ribbon hanging out from the middle of them.

Open up your “tote bag sandwiches”, and lay one on top of the other.  If you are using two different fabrics, make sure each square is stacked upon the square it matches.  Pretty sides (including the ribbon) are inside.

From here, you’re going to sew around all four sides of the rectangle you’ve made.  Leave a hole on one of the sides of your liner so you’ll be able to turn the tote bag right side out.

This next step is totally optional!  If you don’t want to have boxed corners on your bag, you can just skip ahead to the next step.

At this point, you should have a long rectangle, and as such, you have four corners.  To box a corner, you first need to line up the seams you have sewn on each edge of the corner.  This turns your corner into a little triangle.

Cut off the tip of the triangle, and sew along the edge you just cut.  Simple, right?  Make sure you cut the same size triangle from each corner.  I cut mine off at two inches from the tip.  Yes, you need to do this for each of the four corners of your rectangle.

Personalizing your Tote Bag – The Painting Section

Now that your tote bag is finished, it’s time to add your monogram!  Find the letter you want from the stencil kit, and trace it onto a piece of freezer paper (shiny side down – you want to draw  on the papery side).  Iron the freezer paper stencil onto the tote bag.  Again, you want to iron the shiny side onto the fabric.  Got it? Awesome, that means you’re ready to paint!

Before painting, I recommend putting a piece of wax paper or cardboard inside the tote, just to make sure that no paint bleeds through.  With that done, though, pull out your fabric paints and stencil brushes and add dots all around your stencil.

The thing I love about freezer paper, is that it will iron on and create a solid seal along the edges of your stencil.  When you’re finished painting, it’s super easy to just peel the freezer paper off, and you’re left with a nice, sharp edge.

This project was created for September 2019’s “Inspire My Creativity” link party.  This month’s theme? Use the Stash!  I’m lucky enough to co-host this link party with some pretty amazing ladies – make sure you check out their blogs (links below) for more fun projects!