Jean Tote

I don't sew.

I want to sew.  I try to sew.  But I don't really sew.  Today was the perfect example of that.

I wanted to make a tote and I had a great tutorial all set.  The problems started when I reached for the fabric.  I accidentally grabbed an old pair of jeans and thought, serendipity, I'll make a little tote out of these bell bottom jeans.  How hard could that be? Those are often my famous last words.  How hard could it be, indeed.

I started with a basic idea of what I wanted.  Simple tote with two handles and two pockets embellished with ric rac.  Here is the preliminary layout.  Sure looks easy enough, doesn't it.  

So, I started with the handles because I thought they would be the most annoying and I wanted to get them out of the way.  All I did was take two pieces of denim, put them right side together, and sew each side of the long ends.   I trimmed up the excess, and then I did it again.  I made the handles 14 inches long and I honestly just eyeballed the width, looks like about 1-1/2 inches wide.

I then turned each handle right-side out which took a significant amount of time.  The first one I just tried to stuff my finger through which didn't work very well, but eventually did the trick.  For the second one, I thought I would get smart and put a needle and thread at the one end.  Then I fed the needle through the tube, backwards so it wouldn't snag (see, look how smart I am) until it reached the end. 

This was the big moment.  I pulled with the anticipation of brilliance only to have the thread snap.  Uh-huh.  In that brief moment, I was launched right back into the finger stuffing method, and yes, I definitely did feel like a loser (in case you were wondering).

When I got them turned right, I sewed on the ric rac.

At the ends of each handle, I turned the end up the wrong way about a quarter inch and sewed.  I didn't get this right the first time.  It looks wrong, in fact, when it is done correctly.  The reason is that the ugly side will be sewn to the inside of the tote so that the clean edge will then face outward.

See how this looks messy?  This was the first attempt where I did it wrong.

See how this looks so much neater (with the ugly side buried)?  Too bad I didn't get it right the first time.  :)

At first, I wanted to do one of those fancy squares with an 'x' in the middle to attach the handles, sort of the like the photo below only my vision was much neater.  I had no idea that it was so difficult to line up stitches, (to be fair, it probably isn't that difficult for most people, just me).  In the end, I ripped out those ugly squared x's and just did some straight lines.  That should be my guidance for future projects - just do straight lines.  

Then I moved onto the pockets.  These were basically squares but with a wider top edge.  I turned the edge under and sewed around all four sides, as well as sewing on a stripe of ric rac.  Then I sewed each pocket on to the front of the tote. 

I did them both on a slight diagonal so that you can't tell that I am too spastic to sew straight or line anything up  to add a little interest to the front of the tote.  This was surprisingly difficult because the pant leg was a tube and it was really hard to get the tube in a position where I could sew these pockets.

I can't tell you how many times I jabbed myself with those pins.  Seriously, I was starting to worry about the blood loss.

The bottom edge of the tote was pretty easy.  I sewed a seam along the bottom, then turned the tote inside-out and sewed another seam along the bottom.  I thought I was being so clever, trapping the little frayed edge inside, but there were still a bunch of stubborn frayed edges that I had to cut off.

(Yeah, and by the way,......what the hell is wrong with my nail?)

At the end of this project, I have to admit that the skills I most used today were:  ripping out stitches and cursing.  I don't really need to hone my cursing skills, but if I did, today was effective.

I do like how it turned out and plan to put my current crocheting project in it, but I'll have to move quickly.  There were thieves afoot at our house.

When I peeled that tote away from Danny, Moe got into the act.

And even Pete fell in love with it.

I might have to make another one for myself.  I wonder if I could survive it.

This is where I'm partying:
Thriving on Thursday (Domesblissity)
What We Wore and Made Wednesday (Rae Gun Wear)
Link It Up Wednesday (Junk In Their Trunk)
It's a Party (A Creative Princess)
Taking Timeout Thursday (Mom On Timeout)
Super Sweet Thursday Par-tay (Fabulously Flawed)
Freestyle Friday (Happy Hour Projects)
Flaunt It Friday (Chic on a Shoestring)
Frugal Friday (Shabby Nest)
Shine on Friday (One Artsy Mama)