How to make a tote bag: Tote bags are easy and simple to sew. The things which you will need in this process are not much costly. Suppose you have a sewing toolkit, then most of the required things you already have in your hand. The rest you can get from any crafting store or fabric shop at affordable rates.
In this article, we will guide you on how to make a tote bags at home. The tote bag can be used as multipurpose bags. You can use them as your shopping bag, diaper bag or bookbag, etc. The preparation of these bags will not cost you a lot. And as you are sewing these bags at home, that’s why you can use material which you like.
Therefore, you can use the fabric of your favourite colour. Moreover, if you have any spare fabric pieces at home, those can also be used in this stitching project. Further, it is less time-consuming. So, you can sew as many tote bags as you can for your convenience.
Tools needed for sewing
Let’s discuss which things are required to sew a tote bag. You should have:
- A sewing machine
- Measurement ruler
- An iron
- Sewing scissors
- Straight pins
- Four pieces of squared shape fabric (all should be 18 inches in length and 18 inches in width)
- Thread whose colour should match with the fabric (The selection of thread depends upon the fabric’s design. If the fabric’s colour is solid, then match the thread close to the fabric colour. If your selected fabric is a pattern, you should match the thread with the fabric’s background colour. And if no colour is superior in fabric, you can use a thread of any solid colour.)
These are some tools and other required things which you should have to start sewing a tote bag.
Now, it’s time to set your hands on the sewing machine. But wait! Let’s go down stepwise.
Steps to follow:
By following the three easy below mentioned steps you can your beautiful tote bag.
1. Make straps for bag
First, we are going to make straps for the bag. So, what do you need for this purpose?
- Pick the fabric piece which you already have. Cut a 2-inch wider strap from square shape fabric. Do this same with all four pieces of fabric. You should have four straps of fabric. Each of them should be 2 inches wide and 18 inches long because the length of our square fabric is 18 inches long.
- Take one strap out of four and lay it down in the position so that the side you want to show outside should be face up.
- Now, take another strap and put it on the previous strap in a face-down position.
- You can use the straight pins to tie these two straps together.
- Stitch the straps from both long sides together.
- You can have to make the extra effort in this step because it is a bit tricky to handle. What you have to do here? You should turn the strap inside out. Do this with proper attention and slowly so that things get done easily.
- Firmly press the straps with iron so that they look straight and attractive.
- You are done with two straps of fabric, now do the same procedure on the other two straps.
2. Process of making the inner and outer lining of the tote bag
The fabric pieces we have taken were 18 inches wide and 18 inches long, but we have cut 2 inches wide from each piece, so now the fabric pieces should be 18 inches long and 16 inches wide.
- Set down one piece of fabric in a position so that the right side should be facing up.
- Now pick up another piece of fabric and keep it on the first piece of fabric, and it should be in a face-down position.
- Pinup the two pieces together with the help of straight pins. Pinup in a way so that the top of the fabric should be open.
- Stitch the pinup pieces from the three sides which you have pinned up together.
- Start folding the top of the bag down about half an inch. And press it well to disappear the crinkles if there are any.
- Push the fabric inside the bag.
- Repeat the same steps with other pieces of fabric. But don’t turn it inside out because those fabric pieces will be used as the lining of the bag.
3. Join both bags
Now you have sewed both sides of the bag. It’s time to join them together.
- Join together both bags in a way that the wrong side of the bag should be facing out. Push the bag inside the other, and here we go! You should have a good-looking tote bag in your hands.
- Now it’s time to bind stirps to this bag. Take the one edge strap and place it between one side of the bag’s outer bag and the tote bag’s inner side.
- Pick up another end strap and place it as same as we did above.
- Now, repeat the same process with other straps.
- Your mind-blowing awesome tote bag is ready to use! What about giving it a test? Take up your tote bag and use it for a minute to test whether it’s ready to use state or not.
- If everything in the tote bag is working fine, then move on to the next step.
- The last task you have to do is make a stitch on the top of the tote bag and sew together the inner and outer bag. Don’t forget to remove the straight pins used to hold the bag’s straps together.
Now, your tote bag is ready to use!
Final words
Rolling up the article we hope that you will like our easy tote bag tutorial. all you need first prepare the sewing tolls and follow the sewing steps. by following the above mentioned simple steps you can sew your tote bag in just seconds.
In the last part of our article, we highly appreciate your efforts if you want to share anything about the tote bag design and tutorial. If you face any difficulty in its sewing feel free to ask. Besides this, give your valuable feedback in the comment section and share the article with your friends and family members.