DIY Tote by amykathryn, Thanks Pintrest!

Like many of you, I spend way too many hours on Pinterest! It's time for me to stop just saving to my favorite boards - it's time to put these pins into action!



I needed another bag pattern for my Mom's camping birthday tote bag. (It's my Mom's 49th birthday...again) One that kept catching my attention on Pintrest was the DIY tote by amykathryn. 




Short on time (as usual) to make this birthday gift, I used my lunch breaks to sew in the office. One day someone is going to be pretty surprised when they open the spare office to find my new sewing room! Won't that be fun for them?! 

Back to the bag! I used my camping stash and went full speed ahead. A note about that...always, always pre-read the instructions before diving into any pattern. It's like cooking. Read the recipe. Make sure everything sounds good. Eye over the ingredients, make sure you have every thing you'll need, then start. Trust me, this will save you time and more importantly FABRIC in the long run! 








I chose a directional print as the outer fabric base for my bag with non directional sleeping bags. 













The inside print is smores with matchstick handles and matching inside bottom. 
Because I chose a directional print, I adjusted the pattern to allow for the two 1/4" seams needed to change the direction on the backside of the purse. (let me know if that doesn't make sense) 









The bag came together pretty darn quick. I used some stabilizer just so the bag would have a little more body. I also doubled the handles (cutting 4 instead of 2), sewing down the sides and flipping them right side out. The pattern really never discussed how to....handle them so I did them my way! :) 

This is a three hour straight forward small tote. The fabric was super cute if I do say so myself! 

 My Mom seemed to really like it. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Tanner, well he just couldn't help himself.  He went right into his Nana's new camping tote and into a huge bag of jumbo marshmallows!  Who can really blame him?  

What's camping without the smores?  

Who an I kidding?!  Who cares if we are camping or not, let's just eat some marshmallows!