Tote bag make over & Happy St. Patricks Day!

 
A couple of posts ago I showed some flowers I made from fabric strips. I put one on my purse and looked around for other things to do with them. I found this nice tote bag at a thrift store for 75 cents. Its burlap, backed with a flexible water proofing. Very sturdy, built to carry pottery apparently. I don't like the big knots on the inside handles, and I want a pocket that its safe to carry money in.

Here is a pic of the handles with knots:

My first task was to hide the words so I applied some flowers that I had already made, next, how to close up the pocket? Memere's zipper box came to mind and I found this big old metal zipper and hand sewed it to the flap. It wasn't long enough but left just enough room for a custom cellphone pocket. And see the bright green on the right? That is some giant ricrack that I really wanted to use for handles, but you can see it is the wrong color (when returned to Joann's I brought a piece of fabric).



There was no giant rickrack in a suitable color, but my dh actually found what I used. I wanted something flat so I could sew the ends together on the inside rather than having knots. A bonus is that I can gather 2 loops from inside to shorten the handle length (instead of shoulder length)and carry in my hand without dragging on the ground. The only thing left to do was disguise a small stain near the top. I did this by stenciling my initials. I cut a vinyl stencil on my cutting machine at work and then stenciled it during my Art Club last nite (9 of us this week!) I was going for a typewriter key look. Here is the finished product. Ready to go shopping on foot carrying everything I need and purchases too.


I'm linking up to Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts. Be sure to check out the other projects here!

I'm also linking to Tea Rose Home's new link party featuring crafty creations! Check them out!

Kathy