Quilting Tote Bag Tutorial

How do you take a quilt from flat to three-dimensional and turn it into a practical little object? In this lesson, we'll take a simple tote bag as an example to take this step~

Finished size → 20cm (depth) x 30cm (width) x 5cm (thickness)
 

Download Bag PDF pattern

This bag is the most common 3-piece bag - the front and back pieces are connected by a strip in the center. Unlike making a normal bag, the first thing we need to do is not to use the paper pattern, but to trim it.

1. Cut 48 squares of 6.3 cm in length, and assemble them into 2 panels in 4 rows and 6 columns, making sure to use a 1/4-inch seam allowance.

2. After the package surface patchwork, according to its size, cut auxiliary cotton, lining each two pieces, each piece of package surface under the laying of a piece of auxiliary cotton and lining fabric into a quilted sandwich, with a pin to fix a little, and then quilted (press line), quilting you can choose the way you feel suitable, can be hand-stitched can also be sewed → machine.

3. Now it's time to use the paper pattern, which includes the seam allowance. Align the center line of the paper pattern with the center line of the quilting surface and draw the outline of the other 3 sides, then turn over to the other side and draw again, and finally trim the 2 pieces of the bag surface along the outline line.

4. To make the side strips, which can be made from whole cloth or pieced together, at the beginning, count the fabrics to be more generous, cut a 7cm x 70cm piece of each of the surface cloth, the auxiliary cotton, and the lining, and quilt the 3 in 1 as appropriate.

5. Afterwards, the paper pattern of the side strips is used for further trimming.

Adding an inside pocket

1. To add a compartment or zippered pocket to your bag, proceed to the next section, where we use a piece of fabric to make two pockets. First, cut a piece of cloth slightly wider than the face of the bag, twice the height of the desired depth of the inner pocket.

2. Make a window for the zipper about 3 cm down from the center fold line. The height of the window is about 1.2 cm, and the length depends on the zipper you use. Specifically can refer to the zipper bag production methods, the difference is that here we no longer need another bag cloth, replace the bag cloth is a piece of cloth slightly larger than the window can be → 

3. After installing the zipper, still fold the bag cloth and one of the bag face, and then along the surface of the bag around the sparse sewing a circle, and then trim the edges of the bag cloth and the same as the bag face, so that it will form a compartment pocket and a zipper pocket. If desired, you can attach such a pocket to another piece of the bag as well.

Making teardrop shaped straps

1. Teardrop shaped straps are very common in quilting bags, and many commercially available leather straps are of this shape, which can also be made from fabric. The length of the strap can be adjusted, and the ends are trimmed according to the shape of the paper pattern, so that two pieces are needed for one strap.

2. Sew the two pieces of cloth together in a circle with the front facing inwards, leaving about 5 centimeters in the center.

3. Trim the corners and edges of the ends, turn them over to the front, iron them flat and sew the opening back together. Next, prepare a piece of string, wrap it around a few times, about 5 centimeters shorter than the strap, and tie off the two ends of the string after wrapping it. Then prepare a tampon, the length of the rope is slightly shorter than the rope, the width of the rope and rope rolled together just to be wrapped by the strap as appropriate → 

4. Next, wrap the auxiliary cotton with a tampon, then wrap the wrapping tape around the tampon, leaving 6 centimeters at each end of the wrapping tape, and sew the two edges together in the middle with a rolled-up stitch or a hidden-stitch sewing method.

5. After the bag strap is made, you can sew it on the bag surface now or leave it until the end. Before sewing, sew the center rope to the bag surface, so that the double fixation is more solid →

6. The water droplets are then covered and sewn together by machine or hand stitching.

Connecting the bag body together

1. Now you can sew the front and back pieces of the bag and the side strips together, unlike other bags, the bag and the side strips should now be attached to the opposite side of the bag, first find the center point of the bottom of the alignment, and then gradually aligned to both sides of the positioning, the use of bead pins to position the bag will be more difficult to use, instead of using paper clips or long-tailed clips. After positioning, sew with a seam allowance of about 0.6 cm→

2. Sew the other piece of the bag side with the same connection, and when finished, the sewing edge of the bag will be on the outside.

3. Piping the two sewn edges, cut the piping strips diagonally, and cut the piping strips wider, about 4 cm, because the seam allowance is thicker here. Attach the piping strip to one side of the bag and sew with a seam allowance of 0.7 to 0.8 cm.

4. Then turn the piping strip to one side of the edge strip, wrap the seam allowance tightly, fold the edges, and sew with a hand sewing needle.

5. Finally, only the edge of the mouth of the bag is left, also using piping, piping strips on the front side of the sewing, turned to the inside and then folded edges hand sewing → (it is necessary to point out here, will be the 4 side guides to one side of the edge strips)