See & Do

Some people's fascinations with hearts sort of begin and end with Valentine's Day. Not this lady. I love myself a heart motif no matter what time of year, so make up this unique little tote bag, debut it on V' day, and keep on totin' it all year long.

In this tutorial, I'm showing you how to make the front of this bag. From there, you can personalize the size, shape, and elements to your heart's (no pun intended) content.

Materials:

Black Canvas
Red Canvas
Striped Fabric
Piping Cord

Putting It All Together: Begin by drawing half of a heart on red canvas. Cut it out about 1/2" outside of your drawn half heart. Trace it onto the edge of a piece of black canvas, and cut out about 1/2" inside of your traced line.

Cut a strip of striped fabric about 2.5" wide and long enough to go all the way around your half heart cut-out. I cut mine on the bias so that my stripes would be diagonal. Wrap the strip of fabric around piping cord and stitch as close to the cord as possible using a piping or zipper foot. Trim excess fabric off, leaving about a 1/2" tail.

Pin the piping around the half-heart cut-out on the black canvas -- piping side pointed in out towards the canvas. Stitch in place as close to the piping as possible. You're basically just sewing over the stitch you made in the last step.

Now pin and stitch the red cut-out onto the canvas. Here, you are pinning with right sides facing and the piping sandwiched between the right sides. Pinning it will feel awkward, but just manipulate the fabric into place. Again, you are stitching it as close to the piping as possible. Once stitched, clip the seam allowances of the curves. Press. Trim if necessary.

Now, you're ready to turn your little half-hearted bag front into a full-fledged tote. You can follow the basic construction techniques in either this tutorial or this one to create a basic tote. Your bag back and lining pieces will just need to be cut to the same size as your finished bag front. Enjoy!

luri & wilma