Sew this Quilted Tote Bag with a few Simple Rectangles and Squares! | Techniques for Better Bags!

Are you ready to create the cutest little bag that you ever did see? We have gorgeous quilting on the outside as well as two exterior pockets. It is also fully lined with an interior pocket. And I've also linked the tutorial for this adorable purse charm for you as well. Hello friends, my name is Becky and welcome to my channel where I share kind of shabby but always chic creative inspiration. And whether you are a beginner or you already have some sewing skills under your belt, this tutorial is for you. Well, there is lots of fun in store today, so let's get this project started. For your upper fabric panel, you're going to need two pieces. And we do cut them just a little bit larger than what we need because we're also going to be placing them on batting to quilt. And you will need these cut 16 wide and 10 high. And you'll also need your batting to be a little bit larger than that panel as well. And for my batting in this project, I am using the Polyfill Extra Loft. And with this panel, I'm going to show you how you measure, mark, and stitch those quilting lines for that panel. For your two outer pockets, you will need fabric cut to 13 1⁄2 by 6 1⁄2. And again, I'll be using this piece here to show you how to measure, mark, and quilt your fabric. And for my pockets, I'm using the warm and white cotton batting. The bottom panel is actually one solid piece. And again, we have cut it larger than what we need to quilt it. And you will cut that piece at 16 wide by 15 high. And once we've finished quilting everything, they will be cut down to the size that they're going to need for assembling the bag. And all of these measurements will be in the description box below. For your straps, you'll need two pieces of fabric that are 4 inches wide and 36 inches long. And you'll also need two strips of batting that are 3⁄4 inches wide and 36 inches long. And again, I am using warm and white for the batting in my straps. We are not quilting anything in the interior, so all of your interior pieces will be cut to size. Cut your interior pocket fabric to 14 inches long by 8 inches wide. And you'll also need some lightweight interfacing cut to 7 inches high by 8 inches wide. And if you intend to sell your products and you have labels, I prefer to put my label on my interior pocket. And my lining is one continuous piece that is 15 inches wide and 28 inches long. You can also use two pieces that are 15 wide and 14 1⁄2 inches long and stitch them together at the bottom to create one long piece. I like to use my large Fiskars acrylic quilting ruler and some heat erasable fabric pens. There is this 45-degree line here. I then place that 45-degree line in the top corner of my fabric and line it up across the top of my fabric panel. And then I draw my line from the top across my fabric. Then I take that same 45-degree line, place it in the corner along the edge of my fabric panel on the short end, and then draw my line diagonally from this direction. And I'm going to do my quilting lines one inch apart. I'm going to place this line here at one inch right along the line that I have just drawn, but I'm also aligning this line on my ruler as well so everything stays nice and straight. And then I draw my diagonal line, move it down an inch, and I just keep moving my ruler one inch away from the previous drawn line, just making sure that everything stays nice and straight. Then once these diagonal lines are drawn across the fabric panel this way, I turn it and use this line as my point of reference now. Drawing this line in. Then as I complete the lines this way, it gives us that nice crosshatch pattern. And with all of our lines drawn, we're going to place that fabric panel on top of a piece of batting that is slightly larger than the piece that you're going to be stitching on. And then we'll take some nice long quilting pins and just put a few of those in there between those lines, just to hold everything nice and straight while we are stitching down our fabric panel to our batting. I'm going to begin my stitching from this corner of my front panel, stitching right on top of that line and also removing pins as I go along. Once I reach the bottom of my panel, lift up my presser foot, turn my work, and stitch down to the next quilting line. Turn my work. Now I'm going to stitch up this line. And when I'm back at the top, lift up my presser foot, stitch down to the next vertical line, turn my work, and stitch across the panel again. And you're just going to follow that same process going up and down your fabric from both sides until you've covered all of your lines with stitches. I marked the middle of my panel with pins because I want to keep that quilted pattern centered. And now I'm going to go seven and a half inches this way and trim off that excess. Come over seven and a half inches this way and trim off that excess. So my panel is 15 inches wide. Then I've marked the middle of my panel in this direction and I'm going to come over four and a half inches this way and trim. Four and a half inches this way and trim. I'm left with a panel that is 15 inches wide and nine inches high. I marked the middle of my bottom panel and it is also going to be 15 inches wide. So I'm going to go seven and a half inches from the middle on each side to trim off that excess. Then I marked the middle in this direction and I'm going to be going seven inches on either side of the middle because this panel is going to be 14 inches high. After trimming, your bottom panel is 15 inches wide and 14 inches high. And again, these measurements will be in the description box below as well. And now we're going to construct our exterior pockets. You'll take your fabric and fold it in half and that fold line becomes the top of your pocket. And then you measure one inch down from your fold and draw a line across the top of your pocket. Then you'll draw in your quilting lines just like you did on all of your other panels using the 45 degree line on your ruler. Then we're going to open up that pocket and place our batting inside and then you want to protect your work surface. Use your quilt basting spray. Lightly spray the top of that pocket and then you're going to work that fabric down smoothly on top of your batting. Turn your pocket over, lift up the back and I do that to keep all of these layers in place while I'm stitching. And then I just pop some pins in there so everything stays nice and flat when we are stitching our quilting lines. And when you stitch this pocket, you're going to do those quilting lines just a little differently. First, you're going to stitch very, very close to that top edge of your pocket. Then you're going to stitch on that one inch line starting with some back stitches and stopping with back stitches as well. You will start and stop with back stitches and do one line at a time. And then once you've completed all of your stitching, you want to just take a minute or two to trim all of those threads. Now we're going to center our pockets. We are going to trim them along each side and the bottom so that they are six by six. And with our quilting and trimming complete, we're going to get our iron and remove all of these lines. We're simply taking a hot iron and running that over the top. And just like that, all the lines are removed. For your straps, you start by ironing your entire piece in half all the way down. You open that up and you iron each side toward the middle and then over itself. Iron that all the way down as well. And then you'll open it up on one side. Take your batting and place that inside. And then you'll work it in, making sure your interfacing is lying nice and flat. Fold it over on itself again. Press it one more time just to make sure everything is lying nice and flat. And then I placed clips along that open edge just to keep everything together as we go to stitch this closed. I've positioned the edge of my fabric along the inside edge of my presser foot here, but I still want to be able to sew closer to this edge. So my machine allows me to move my needle either to center right or center left. And so I'm going to move it over to the right, allowing me to get even closer to that edge. If your machine does not have that feature, you can simply position your fabric under your presser foot to get closer to that edge. And we're going to come forward a few stitches and do a backstitch. And we're going to stitch all the way down our strap. And occasionally, you do want to stop and check to make sure that those open edges remain one on top of the other and that you are catching both edges of that fabric when you are sewing. And I'm not stretching. I am simply supporting the strap from the front and from the back. Keep your needle in, turn your work, stitch across your strap, reposition, and then stitch all the way down the other side. And we're going to finish off the edge with a couple of backstitches, clip our threads, and we are finished. And press our strap. Then take your straps and make sure that they are both the same size because sometimes they can get a little wonky when you're stitching. Now I'm going to start putting our bag together. For our front upper panels, we're going to fold one of our pockets in half to find the middle. And we're going to do the same thing with our front panel. Then we'll take our pocket and line it up in the middle of our front panel. Then I'm going to pop a few pins in there to hold that in place around the outside edges. So I've got that pin down and I did the same thing to the other panel. And then you want to lay them one on top of the other just to make sure that they line up with each other on each of those panels. And now we're going to go to the machine and we're going to stitch a small basting stitch to secure these pockets to the front panel. If you move your needle over when you were sewing your straps, make sure you return it to the center position. And I'm lining the edge of the pocket with the inside edge of my presser foot. And I'm also going to increase my stitch length to 3.5 and stitch along, removing my pins as I go. Then as you sew, make sure that you pivot at each of your corners and then finish up your stitching at the top edge. And you'll do that on your other front panel as well. For all of the quilting and sewing that I've done so far, I have used a 90-14 needle. But now we're getting ready to assemble this and things are going to get quite bulky. So I have put a 1-10-18 size needle in my machine to help me more easily sew through all of these bulky pieces. To attach our straps, we're going to begin by once again marking the middle of our pocket and our front panel. And we're going to lay it, making sure that it's not twisted. And we're going to line up the bottom edge of our strap to the bottom edge of our front upper panel. And now I'm going to take a ruler and at my 2.5 inch mark, I'm going to place that right where I have marked my middle. Make sure that this strap lies right against the edge of my ruler here. And I'm going to pop a pin in it. And then this edge needs to lie at the 5 inch mark. And I'm going to pop a pin in that. I'm going to put my 2.5 inch line at the middle of my pocket here, making sure those edges are aligned and pinning that down. Then we need to move this so it's at the 5 inch line. And we're going to put a pin in there. Fold it in half and just make sure that the pocket edges are aligned and the straps are aligned. So everything is going to be nice and straight when we sew everything down. And I'm going to put pins in there. Then as I fold it up over at the top, I see that all of that lines up as well. We're going to do the same thing, but I'm going to do something just a little differently on this strap. So I want this to be the front of my tote bag. So before I pin all of this down, I am going to slide a D-ring on there. So that way I can flip on keys or a purse charm, anything like that. And once again, I'm going to line up the bottom edges of my strap with my upper panel, line my straps up, and pin. It's just like we did here, making sure it is all in the middle. Lay both panels on top of each other just to make sure. So the straps are matched up at the bottom and the straps are going to be even at the top. Now you'll need your heat erasable pen again. We are going to measure an inch and a half from the top edge of our fabric and make a mark. Then we're going to go down two and a half inches and make a mark. We're going to do that to both sides of our strap. Line those edges up and draw across. And then we're going to measure diagonally. So we're going to make those marks on all of our remaining straps. Now when we stitch our straps on, we're going to be stitching over our original line here all the way up the side, across the top of this line, down, pivoting to stitch this line, stitch back up, and then stitching across this line one more time. That's going to make that extra secure at the top of our tote bag here. And then we're going to continue stitching all the way down the other side. Because there's a lot of bulk in this area, stitching through multiple layers here, I have increased my stitch length to three. And we're going to begin with a couple of forward stitches and back stitches. Come forward again. And I'm just going to take my time making sure that I am covering those original stitching lines. With our needle down, we're turning our work and stitching across that drawn line. Pivoting again to come across the diagonal. Turn your work again, stitching across the bottom line of our X. Pivoting again to come back up to the top. Pivoting one more time, sewing directly across our previous line of stitching at the top. And pivoting again to continue stitching down the other side of our strap. And when you come to the bottom of the other side of your strap, you do want to add in a couple of back stitches to secure that line of stitching. And you have completed one side of your strap. And that looks fantastic. And then you'll just repeat that same process on all your straps until you have them all sewn down onto your front fabric panels. And now we're going to remove our marks. We're also going to press out that crease that we made to mark the middle of our pocket. You can stitch across the top of that D-ring to hold that into place. However, if you intend to sell these, I would keep that D-ring free. That way, your customer can place it on either side, depending if they are right-handed or left-handed, and they can just move that into the position they prefer. And now you're going to bring in your bottom panel. And they're going to be placed on top like this, making sure that you match up your side and bottom panels. And with that edge clipped into place, we're going to go stitch our seam. This time, we are stitching a half-inch seam allowance. But because we are still going to be encountering a lot of bulk when we reach the strap and pocket areas here at the bottom, I am keeping my stitch length set at three. And we're going to begin our stitch line with a couple of forward and back stitches, just making sure that all of those stitches stay secure. Once we begin to encounter the strap and pocket area, you want to slow down when stitching over that bulk. So just continue stitching all the way down this seam and end your stitches with some back stitches as well. And then you're just going to follow that same process and stitch down the panel on the other side. And again, you will be using a half-inch seam allowance. Now you're going to iron this seam, making sure that your seam allowance is facing toward your bottom panel. Now top stitch that seam in place using the outside edge of your presser foot to be placed right along the edge of that seam and keeping your stitch length at three. And once again, you will slow down your stitching when you reach the strap and front pocket area. Finish up with some back stitches and then do the same thing to the other side. And you can see just how good that looks. It's just those tiny little details like that that really make your bag look so professional. And to sew the side seams, you're going to lay the bag pieces one on top of the other and you're going to line up your top and side edges. But you want to make sure these seams here line up with each other and then pin or clip into place all the way down the side. And we're keeping that half-inch seam allowance, but because we have much less bulk to deal with in the side seam, I have reduced my stitch length to 2.5. And we'll start with some forward and back stitches. And you'll stitch all the way down both sides of your bag, slowing down at the seam here and finishing with back stitches here as well. And while you have your bag inside out, you want to really finger crease that bottom because we're getting ready to box out our corners. Then we're going to take our bag and open it up like this. Really making sure that everything is nice and flat inside. Then we're going to measure 2 inches down from the very top of this seam right here. I'm going to take this other flap and get that out of the way. And when I place my ruler to draw that 2-inch line, that is actually going to give me a 4-inch seam. And I'm going to draw that line. I'm going to slightly open and draw my line. Put some clips on either side of my little triangle here. And then these lines are going to line up with each other. And we're going to stitch right across that line, starting with a few back and forth stitches. And I really do that a couple of times because I want to make sure that these edges are secure. Follow that line. And then when we come to the other side, we're going to do a few back and forth stitches a couple of times just to make sure that that boxed corner is going to stay together. So that's what it looks like after stitching. And then you'll just do that same thing to the other side of your bag. And you can trim off this excess if you prefer, but I actually like to leave it to provide a little bit of stability to the inside of our bag. Place my tailor's pressing hand inside and just use the tip of my iron to open up that seam because I don't want to melt this polyester batting. And do the other side. Turn it right side out. And then I'm going to press those seams one more time. And then you want to use something with a blunt pointed end to press out the corners of your boxed corner. And you want to work that out so it's nice and sharp, but you don't want to push so hard that you pop through those stitches or make a hole in your fabric. Because I've seen me do it. Then I'll put my pressing hand back up in there and iron that so it's nice and crisp. If you don't have a pressing hand, you can always use a rolled up hand towel and that'll work just as fine. And you can see even though it's a little floppy, it still stands up on its own. How cute is that? So now we're going to set this aside and grab all of the pieces for our lining. We're going to start by folding our pocket in half so that the pretty side of our fabric is facing up. And we're going to press a crease in that top fold. Open up your pocket, place your interfacing on the back, and then following the manufacturer's directions for whichever brand of interfacing you've chosen to use, you're going to apply that to the pocket. And I like to start in the middle, press and hold for a few seconds, lift up, and press over. And just continue lifting and pressing until you have adhered the interfacing to this side of your pocket. Then take your pocket and fold it once again along that fold line, right sides together. And you're going to clip or pin all around these three sides, leaving an opening for turning, just like that. And we're starting at the top edge where the fold is. And we're using the inside of our presser foot as a stitch guide. And we'll start with a couple of back and forth stitches just to keep that edge nice and secure. And stitch all the way down to the corner. Keep your needle down and pivot. And then we're going to stitch to our first mark and end that with some back stitches. Pick up at our next mark, do some forward and back stitches, pivot at this corner, and continue stitching, ending back up at the fold with some back stitches. Carefully clip that corner close to but not through your stitching at the bottom edge. Come down to where you've made your marks and you're going to clip ever so slightly just on the other side of that mark because that helps us turn that seam allowance under better. Then you'll turn your pocket right side out. Poke out your corners and then run your fingernail along those seams because we want these to lie nice and flat. Then roll your seams so they do lie flat and press. And then come down to your opening and you're going to press those seams under as well. And you have one edge on top of the other. Measure down one inch from the top of your fold here and draw a line with your heat erasable fabric pen. Then go to your machine and you will stitch very close to the top fold edge to hold that in place. And then you'll stitch right across this one inch line as well. And because this is thinner fabric and we are not going to be sewing over all of these thicknesses anymore and I did take out my 110 18 needle and put in my 90 14 because this needle would have left excessively large holes in my thinner fabric. So it looks like this. And now I'm going to apply my product label. So I'll take my label and fold it in half to find the middle. Finger press my pocket to find the middle. Measure down an inch and three quarters from the top of my fold. I design my label on canva and then print this on twill fabric that I have applied heat and bond to. So the back of this has an adhesive. So I place that in the middle and then iron this on. And then once this adhesive cools I just stitch around the edge just to give it a nice clean finish. With the right side of your lining fabric facing up center your pocket three inches down from that top edge and then pin that into place. And now we're going to go and stitch very close to the edge all the way around and that is going to attach the pocket to the lining but it's also going to close the opening that we left here when we turned our pocket. I'm starting with my needle about a quarter inch away from the top edge of the pocket. We're going to start by back stitching to the top edge of our pocket and then we're going to come forward and continue stitching around removing pins as you go pivoting at the corner with your needle down you're just going to continue to sew stitching very close to the edge all the way around your pocket making sure to secure your stitches on this side of your pocket with some back stitches. Press our stitching and also where we put those little finger creases in there to find the middle for your lining fabric go ahead and fold that in half right sides together on each other pin or clip around those side edges and on one side you want to leave a section open because that's where we're going to be turning our bag right side out and I've left a five inch section here just to make sure all of that bulky bag can fit through that opening beginning in with back stitches here and here leave that open back stitches here and here down to the end and back stitches here as well and then of course all the way down this other side you will begin and end your stitch line with back stitches to secure everything into place and because these are just straight lines here I'm going to be doing this off camera you will stitch a half inch seam allowance smooth out and press a nice crease at the very bottom of your lining then open your lining and make all of this nice and flat to measure and mark your box corners on your lining just as you did on the outer fabric at the bottom here and once your creases and your seams all line up mark two inches down that line should be four inches across so draw your line and those lines should match up with each other on both sides then go to your machine and stitch right across those lines making sure you do back stitches at either end to secure all of that into place and since I've already demonstrated this on the outer portion of our bag I will be doing this off camera and as I go along I always clip my threads I haven't been saying that after each seam but I always clip threads when I've finished a line of stitching then take the exterior portion of your bag and tuck it inside the lining make sure those straps are tucked all the way down between the outer portion and the lining then match those seams and your upper portion and clip or pin all the way around the bag if you have a removable platform that makes it easier for you to sew things in the round because you can get that object over that free arm and I'm going to start at the back and we will be stitching a half inch seam allowance all the way around the upper portion of our bag and as always we begin with some forward and some back stitches and we're just stitching all the way around the upper portion of our bag here I am using a 2.5 stitch length and when we get back around where we started we'll go a little past that we're going to do some back stitches and forward stitches there as well find your opening and carefully turn everything right side out check to make sure that you don't have any bunching around this top edge here then tuck in your lining and make sure you don't need any adjustments before you stitch that opening closed then work this seam flat with your fingers making sure that your lining is not poking out over the top and press that and do that all the way around the top of your bag and you'll also tuck in those raw edges where we left that opening there for turning make sure everything lines up and give that a good press too I'm going to pop some pins in there but I put my first pin at the top a little bit above the opening and one at the bottom a little bit below that opening just so I know I've got all of those edges caught up in that seam and you'll stitch very closely to the edge of these folds here making sure that you are going to use some back stitches here and here so your bag stays together over time and occasionally you want to stop and check to make sure that those open edges are still aligned one on top of the other and that you're catching both of those edges in that line of stitching and give a little tug to make sure you closed up all of those edges at the opening tuck your lining back down inside your bag make sure that your straps are out of the way and I'm going to use the outside edge of my presser foot to top stitch this edge that's going to keep our lining down and I've also increased my stitch length to three and I am not stretching my fabric I'm just supporting it from the front and the back and I'm going to do that same process all the way around the top edge of my bag and you can see how that just really finishes off that edge and I'm going to give one more press to that top edge and set those stitches and use my fingers to press out the boxed corners in the lining I truly could not love this bag anymore the strawberries, the seersucker, the gingham inside I absolutely love this bag I hope you love how yours turned out too and I know there are many more steps involved in this bag than some of the others that we've made on my channel but my goodness the payoff on this is just so worth it and I made this cute little purse charm from the lining fabric that coordinates really well and I have a video tutorial for the little purse charm and I will link that for you below just clip that to my d-ring absolutely adorable thank you so much for joining me today it has been my pleasure to sew with you I hope you enjoy creating your own bag and if you do let me know in the comments what color combo you plan to use please subscribe for more kind of shabby but always chic creative inspiration and until next time my sweet friends be blessed