Yellow & Gray Tote Bag

Hello everyone! Today was such a fantastic sewing day! It is gorgeous weather, the windows are open and I listened to The Shins radio on Pandora while sewing all morning. It was so relaxing. 

I made a tote bag that I am IN LOVE with! For a while I have been carrying this nylon messenger bag as my purse (that I didn't make) and I liked it because I didn't care if it got dirty or thrown around and I usually have too much emotional attachment to things I make to feel good throwing them around. Well, I keep getting asked if I made the messenger bag from people who know I make bags and I have to (embarrassingly) tell them "no". And then I get the whole lecture of "Why don't you carry a bag you made?! It's free advertising!". SO today my goal was to make myself the "perfect" bag for myself that I could carry everywhere - and I think I did!

It's a large yellow and gray tote with lots of pockets and is insanely roomy on the inside. I'll go over some of my favorite features :)

I've never done the straps going all the way down the front like this before but I really love how it looks! Especially with the coordinating color. I added a pocket to the outside which I interfaced with fusible fleece so it's nice and padded incase I put my phone in there.

I made the purse so it tapers from smaller at the bottom and wider at the top so it opens up REALLY wide. On the side panels of the bag I used the dark gray on the outside and then the yellow and gray pattern on the panels of the lining. I thought it looked so cool! On one side of the lining I put a large zipper pocket and then a padded cell phone pocket. I opted for a magnetic snap closure because I hate fiddling with a zipper to get inside my purse.

Also, I had an old re-usable grocery bag that had one of those plastic pieces in the bottom for stability so I took it from that bag and put it in here so the bag can stand up on it's own.

On the other side of the lining I put another miscellaneous pocket with a hanging D-Ring to hook my keys to (I have my car keys on a clip)

For the side panels (since they taper wider at the top also) I added magnetic snaps to the sides so I can either have the bag smaller or wider. This makes it easier to carry if I don't have a lot of stuff with me.

Lots and lots of room for all of my stuff   :)

I wish I could put a tutorial up for this but I feel like I almost was in a trance when I was making it. It definitely took a while and I wasn't using any tutorial or inspiration photos - I was just grabbing stuff and going. I almost feel like if someone asked me how I made it I would say "I have no idea" haha

Hope you guys like it! It's a fun project to just grab some fabric and start thinking about your perfect dream purse and start sewing without thinking too much about it - only thinking about elements you want and forcing yourself to figure out how to piece everything together.