Welcome to the Emma Project Tour! We are celebrating the release of the new Emma fabric line by Citrus & Mint Designs for Riley Blake Designs. This line is a follow up of Rachel's Pemberly collection, and was inspired by the works of Jane Austen.
I chose to make a Quilt-As-You-Go library tote (no pattern used - see below) for my kids to take to the library or a book store. I picked some of my favorite prints from the line for this project and paired it with a waxed canvas bottom for sturdiness.
The Tote Details:
As I said earlier, I didn't use a pattern. So this won't be incredibly detailed, but I've been making bags for over 10 years, so it wasn't hard to whip something up on the fly. If you've ever made a tote this will be very straight forward. Below I've listed the very basics of what you need to construct this easy library tote. Use your knowledge of tote assembly to complete it or the fabulous YouTube.
You will need...
- 2 - 16" x 16" QAYG panels
- 2 - 5" x 16" waxed canvas pieces
- 2 - 16" x 22" interior lining pieces (optional)
- 2 - 2" x 36" straps (or your preferred pre-made strapping).
- Use ¼ seams
Notes
I chose to omit a lining from my tote and instead fold the top edge of the tote over by a ½" and top stitched, then again by 1" and top stitched to finish it. If I were making this to sell or as a gift to someone I would have added a lining, but this will serve it's purpose just fine for us with the quilted interior and canvas been exposed.
You could even opt to add in a recessed zipper, or normal zipper top. There are a lot of great tote patterns out there that you could customize by simply quilt-as-you-go panels to the exterior like this one. You might notice this is a tall tote... that was intentional, but you could definitely shorten the quilted panels (13" x 16" for instance" to make a more typical sized tote.
In The Wild
This bag was put on display in our county fair for the Perry County Sewcial Club booth, of which I am a founding member. Can you spot it in the picture below?
I hope you're enjoying the Emma blog tour, please checkout the other projects that are available this month to promote this new fabric line. And, I hope this tote inspires you to think outside of the box and try constructing someone of your own design instead of following a pattern!
Have a great summer!
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