Sew a homemade tote bag for your kids.
School bags can be expensive to buy for your kids every single year. Many of the bags that you can buy do not hold up or last the entire school year. Sew a one-of-a-kind school bag for each of your children. Let the kids help you by choosing their own fabrics. Make the bags easy for the kids to carry by adding shoulder straps that fit across the body. This helps to relieve some of the stress on the shoulders when carrying heavy books.
Instructions
1. Cut six pieces of fabric measuring 14 inches wide and 12 inches long. Cut two strips of fabric that measure 38 inches long by 4 inches wide.
2. Measure your child starting at the waist, going diagonally across the back, over the shoulder and then down across the front of the chest to the waist again. Cut two more strips of fabric to this length and 4 inches wide for the shoulder strap.
3. Lay out the fabric on your work surface and place the bowl at the corner. Draw around the edge of the bowl at the corner. Cut along the drawn line to make a rounded edge.
4. Pin one of the 38-inch strips to one of the 14-by-12-inch rectangles along both sides and the bottom of the bag. Add another rectangle in the same manner to form the outer portion of the bag.
5. Repeat Step 4 using two other rectangles and the other 38-inch strip to form the lining of the bag. Set these two sections aside.
6. Sew the two remaining rectangles with right sides together along the sides and the bottom to form the bag's flap. Turn it right side out.
7. Pin the top edge of the flap to the outer bag portion with right sides together and matching up the raw edges. Sew to hold the fabric in place.
8. Take the shoulder strap strips and layer them with the wrong sides together. Turn under the raw edges along the sides and use the pins to hold the straps in place. Stitch down the sides, removing the pins as you sew.
9. Turn the lining of the bag wrong side out and place it inside the outer bag. Place the straps in the middle of the sides of the bag. Turn in the raw edges of the outer bag and the lining and pin in place.
10. Sew around the top edge of the bag, forming a top hem and securing the shoulder straps in place at the same time.
Tags: inches wide, sides together, along sides, around edge, bowl corner, inches long, outer portion
