Monday's Muse: Tote Bags!

1. Estellon Tippi Tote Bag - Atterley Road

2. Seaside Tote Bag - Alphabet Bags

3. Pleated Tote Bag - So Happy In red

4. Tote Bag Strictly for the birds - Lynn Britton

5. Oli Cloth Tote Bag Bloom - Dandi

6. Possibilities Tote Bag - Uncovet

7. Lana Tote Bag - Oliver Bonas

I hope you all have had a good weekend and are ready for the week!

It is Monday's Muse time! Well, I have decided to do a Monday's Muse twice a month now as I feel that I will be able to manage that, but trying to do it every week could be pushing it. Anyway, this week the theme is Tote Bags! So I was looking at recent posts from the blogs I follow using the mobile app 'Bloglovin' and one caught my eye! It was a tutorial on how to make 3 different sizes of tote bags but with pocks around the sides. Extra pockets are always handy and I do love finding new bag tutorials!

The post on this tutorial can be found here at Sew4home

Anyway this got me thinking about tote bags, 'What is a tote bag?'

Simplest answer....an open bag usually without any pockets or compartments inside and has handles attached towards the middle of each side. However, when I typed in tote bags into Pinterest, well.....the variety was huge. Some more expensive ones come in some lovely fabrics and most often have some extra compartments. So I decided why not do a Monday's muse on tote bags to show them off and give those thinking they may want to make one some inspiration! Enjoy!

One long hiatus!

It is funny, the post before this, nearly over 2 years ago was after a hiatus.....albeit a much shorter one.

So what happened??!!

Well my sewing machine started to fail on me, whilst I was half way through making various projects for my soon to be nephew at the time. Not a good time for it to break and there was a lot of last minute sewing using my Mum's machine the night before his baby shower, but I managed it in the end. However, it is only recently that I have got on and done anything about the lack of sewing machine and craftiness! I am currently in the process of getting a new machine which I hope to order soon. I will post pictures of it once it arrives but that will not be until the beginning of August!

I am happy to say that I carried out my first up-cycle project this year. I took an old children's chair we had in the family and gave it a revamp for my nephews first birthday. I painted a picture of Winnie the Pooh on it. Suffice to say, I was quite pleased with it.

 Before  

After

Also this weekend just gone, I visited London. Whilst I was there I wanted to try and visit a fabric shop or two, and after searching on the internet for the best place in London to go, Berwick street off of Oxford Street appeared on screen to have a reasonable amount of fabric shops. I wasn't disappointed, there were quite a few. However, some were out of my price range but then they were stocking high quality fabrics, particularly some nice silks!!

One shop I particularly like was the 'Cloth House'. This shop had some lovely fabrics and although I could have a piece of all of them, I just went for a nice simple fabric. It stood out to me as I think it would be a lovely print for a bag, either for the outside or as a surprising and pretty lining. Nevertheless, it will remain with the rest of my fabric collection until I acquire a new machine!

 Well I think that is it for the time being. I will keep you updated with how things go, as I currently try to organise and sort out my spare room. I want to make more use of it, sort of make it into more of a craft/sewing room!