 Hey guys, it's Brandon, creator of happily dressed, the fashion blog dedicated to self-acceptance, self-confidence, and self-sufficiency, and welcome back to the channel. I know it's been a while, I had a great time on both my trips, both of them were small cabin trips, up north with groups less than five, but I'm back, I'm safe, and I'm healthy, and I'm excited to be shooting another video for you all. So this video is a first in a new series that I wanna show to you all, because short, small projects really helped me build up my confidence when I first bought my sewing machine, actually a pillowcase was the first project I ever did, and it was beyond easy. And I wanna do a video like that for you guys here, but not as easy, because I mean, you can just put two squares together and get a pillowcase, or I guess two rectangles together and you have a pillowcase. But this quick 20-minute sewing project is going to be a tote bag, which is really exciting. On some Saturday news, my studio was actually broken into about two weeks ago, and they took my tote bag to stuff things in, they took some other stuff too, but I'm not gonna be worried about that, because my camera's still here, my laptop is still here, so I would consider myself lucky. But anyway, today I thought I'd make a tote bag to replace the one that was taken from me. So today we'll be using this fabric that you might recognize from my shapeless romper video, but I've always liked this fabric. It's like a mid-weight linen, super nice. I think it'll make a great tote bag. I also wanted to have a lining, so I just have to see what out of here can be a really good lining, because you know, I have a big fabric stash of just things that I thrift. But I thought this would be fun for us to do together, and to help you build up your sewing skills, understand your sewing machine, and really build up that confidence. Not every day you have the confidence to go out and make pants, or shirt, or a jacket, so why not start small, and with something functional too. Thank you to everyone who's been DMing me over my YouTube journey, but especially over these past two weeks. I think I've gotten an influx of you guys being like, oh, I really loved your video, it made me, or helped me create this project, here's a picture of it, or really appreciate your stuff, keep it up, keep it going. I love having those conversations with you guys, so thank you so much for reaching out, it means the world to me. I'm so happy I can be a part of your sewing journey as well. So I just wanted to say a quick thank you, because it's been really nice to talk to you guys, IRL, I really interact, and if you aren't one of those people, and want to be one of those people, my Instagram is down below, it is just at happily dressed. But anyway, let's get into the video. All right guys, I have all my patterns drawn out, so this is where you get to have fun, so we have our front pattern for the front and the back, so you can cut out two of fabric, two of lining, and then there's also a fold line for you to cut out a sleeve for the inside, because when I use my tote, I like to put my laptop in there, so I'd love to have a separate place for my laptop to go, and then everything else, all the other junk that stays in my tote can just live separate from that, so it doesn't mess up my laptop. And this is with half an inch seam allowance, all the way around. Then we have the front pocket, that's gonna go on the front of the bag. This will be really fun, we have an inch fold allowance at the top, and then also half an inch all the way around, and then we're gonna cut out one of fabric, and then we have a keepsake pocket for the inside as well, for me to put like memory cards, keys, et cetera, so they're not lost in my bag either, and I'm just gonna cut out one of fabric, and then we have the strap, which for me is going to be 37 inches long, and one and a half inches wide. So the cool thing is though, that I've decided to make this actually a PDF pattern, so you can go pick this up on my website, habledress.com. You'll be able to pick up the free PDF pattern, feel free to download it, try it out yourself, I think this will be really fun for us to do together now. If you're just an idea that pops into my head, I've done PDF patterns before, so why not make this one, so that way you guys can make the exact same bag. So yeah, if you download it and do it, please tag me and let me know. So I first started out by cutting all the necessary pattern pieces, and yeah, I forgot to shout out my awesome crystals for being pattern weights for me during this whole process. I have a lot, so I'm glad they got to have their moment to shine. All right, so I have everything cut out, this is my front pocket, the front, that's the back lining, then we have the back, the keepsake pocket, and then the front, and then the inside of this side will look like, so yeah, the inside of this side will look like this, so that's where the laptop sleeve will be. So we'll start with the front and getting the front pocket ready. We're gonna press down the seam allowance on all sides, and then sew that to just, and sew that to just the front. So once again, we're gonna press down with an iron, the seam allowance of the front pocket on all sides, including the fold seam allowance, and then sew down this fold, and then put the pocket on the front, and then sew that down to just the front, so that way our sew lines are hidden when we combine the front and the back lining together. So that is the front pocket all surged and sewn down, and now I'm going to attach it to the front piece, and right now we're only working on the front piece of the bag, so we'll be pinning that bad boy down and then sewing it to the front fabric. Once that's all done, it looks something like this, and I'm gonna head and surge the front fabric as well, and now we're moving on to the front lining that's gonna also have the sleeve, so I'm going to surge and fold down that first sleeve and sew that down. It should look something like this, and then I'm gonna flip it to where it needs to be and go ahead and surge it with the lining so that way it's one continuous piece. And if you don't have a surger, you can just use a zigzag stitch for everything that I've surged. And now that is all completed, the two, the sleeve and the lining are together. Here is the little surge line, which you can use a zigzag stitch for. So now what I'm gonna do is take them right sides facing and only sew them at the very top, and I'll show you in just a little bit. So I'm gonna sew them right up here at our half an inch seam allowance, so that way I can flip them right sides out and iron that down. And I'm about to do just that to show you exactly what I mean. So once I pressed it, it was nice and neat, and that is our front all completed, which is awesome. So this is the front of our tote with the front pocket and the sleeve, and now we're going to move on to the back, which is very easy. All we'll need is the lining and the keepsake pocket, and we're going to surge and iron in that seam allowance of the keepsake pocket. I'm just showing you guys exactly what I'm doing. I'm ironing in the half an inch seam allowance, and then I'm gonna sew down the top part. So there we have a functioning pocket. This is also where I realized that my straight lines suck. But basically I found a place to put the keepsake pocket sewed that in with a straight stitch. I'm also watching one of my favorite sewing YouTubers with Wendy while I do this. But yeah, once that was done, all you had to do now because the back didn't have a pocket, or the back of the tote didn't have a pocket, so basically we're gonna put right sides facing of the fabric and the lining so that same half an inch seam allowance. You can put pins in as well to make sure they stay. And then once I do that, I'm gonna also surge all sides once I flip it right side out. And that's what I'm showing you here. I went ahead and sewed it down and surged everything so you can see that it is one complete piece. So that is the back done and we have the front done. Now we're gonna put them right sides facing or outside parts facing and sewing them in a U shape, leaving the top open. And once that's all done, it looks something like this. My fabric was actually very thick and didn't realize it was gonna be that thick so you might run into that same issues. You can switch to a denim needle or even use thinner fabric. So this is the bag almost complete. We see we have the sleeve in there, which I am so bad at trying to show. We also have the keepsake pocket looking real pretty, peeking out right there at the top. But this is the bag basically done and now we're going to move on to the handles. So this is me mapping out exactly where I want the handle to go, seeing if the length is what I want. And it was, so basically what you're gonna do after that is take your two pieces and put them right sides facing and do one big long U shape, leaving one side open so that way you can turn it inside out. And this is me turning out both pieces. It was kind of difficult in the beginning but I just used my finger to kind of just get in there and start pulling. And once you get it all taken care of, you wanna push the corners out on the other side. And then you're gonna iron that down so it's one flat piece. And then once you do that, you can pin both sides down. And what I did for the open side, pinch the outside of the open side in and iron that down as well so that way once you sew a square into that strap to connect it to the front, you can close that off as well. And then I was all done once I sewed that down. This is a complete, I put two heavy books in there so that way you could see how sturdy it was. It's not going anywhere. And actually I'm really happy with the way this turned out. And just like that guys, I am all done. So it didn't take me 20 minutes because I had to draft a pattern. And I was actually watching TV as I was doing a lot of this and just staying at my studio. So it took me a lot longer than 20 minutes but hopefully it takes you just 20 minutes. But you don't have to add in the sleeve or the keepsake pocket. But I just thought they were nice additions. The front pocket's really nice. Quick way to just store your phone or something small like my little notebook. Throw that in so I know it's in the bag. Cool, we can go. You can even keep it close to you on the inside so that way it won't fall out. But this is really cool. Right now I have in two really heavy books in there. On the sleeve actually works great. I actually would probably put a button or some kind of fastener on the sleeve so that way it's not just, I was gonna say a different word but just like flopping in there. Like it's just kind of laying in there. And I can see that getting in the way. But I have a few different fastener options that would be great. And I'd probably do the same with the keepsake pocket just in case I'm putting my keys or something in there which actually probably would fit. Where are they? I'm actually really happy and excited with this tote. I think it looks great. I love the print that I chose. It's about time I put use to the rest of this fabric because it's just been sitting over here. And I guess I'll show you guys too. I have this big collection of fabric. If you haven't seen it in my videos, I'll show you now. Behind both my little mannequins is just all this fabric that I like drifting from different places. And I've even gone through this several times and gotten rid of a lot. So it just stays here until I'm ready to use them. But yeah, if you enjoyed this video please give it a big thumbs up. Don't forget you can go get the PDF pattern down below at my website. I feel like getting to do really easy projects like this one help you with your sewing fluency when it comes to your machine, stitches, things like that. I've learned a lot actually doing this as well. Like I need to work on my straight stitches. They're actually pretty awful. Oh, I broke a needle which is crazy. But that's because I'm working with like canvas and this linen like this inside was actually, my lining was actually canvas. So it was really thick putting all those layers together. And I broke a needle. So I switched to a denim needle. You might have to do that as well depending on what material you're using. But yeah, there was definitely a lot that I learned from this go out. But I'm actually, I'm happy I have a tote again. It's nice to be able to carry things in and out without having them all like fostered in between my two elbows. Hoping I don't drop anything. Super glad to be back. If you want to keep up with what I'm doing you can follow me on my Instagram down below as well. Until my next video, I'll see you guys later.