Lined mini tote bag

We bought this lovely material a few weeks ago and wondered quite what we'd end up making with it....well here it is! We made a mini lined tote bag which sports an inside pocket. The handles were made out of some wide cream webbing that we'd bought for something else but just happened to go with this material too! When we were on holiday in Cornwall, we both bought a little jute bag each which is of a similar size and we've found it so useful, we wanted to create something as beautiful as it is practical. The maritime theme outer fabric is fairly thick but we wanted to line it with calico to add to it's quality feel-appeal! Then we added a pocket to the inside too, as I've got an oilcloth bag I bought and I've found the inner pocket great for putting your mobile in for quick answering. How annoying it is when you can hear it ringing but you can't quite put your hands on it...and you end up scrabbling around and just as you find it, it rings off!

As usual we learnt a lot making these bags. Our sewing day is never complete without a fair share of stitch unpicking! Hilarious too, was when I realised my sewing machine wasn't too happy and the needle didn't seem to be quite central. But you know me, perserverence is my middle name! I soldiered on and on, taking care to take the 1mm lean to the right of the needle into account when trying to sew on the lines we'd marked out! Eventually I thought, I really have to figure out what was wrong. My friend said maybe I'd had it on zig-zag before and it hadn't re-adjusted itself properly? Hmmm. Tried swapping between straight stitch and zig-zag....hmmm, still not sorted. Then I remembered how the other day when I tried to do zig-zag applique, the machine really couldn't cope....I'd thought my machine was giving up the ghost! Then in that very moment....it was like a blinding flash! I'd changed the needle over to a denim one, then I changed it back to a standard needle.....yes you guessed it....I'd not put the needle in straight! How it sewed at, all is anyones guess! Oh how we laughed and laughed! Every cloud though....I won't be making that mistake in a hurry!