Developing a Tote bag

The Plastic Problem

Featuring the top hem of the bag, whereby I turned the ends and proceeded with a straight stitch around the edge. While this appeared successful on the exterior of the bag, the hem on the inside frayed (depicted at the very bottom of the photo). I soon established that I should have doubled the roll to prevent this. Nevertheless, the construction of the bag was going successful.

After the completion of the main body, it was time to form and attach the handles that would be essential for both hooking over the shoulder or simply holding. To achieve this, all I did was measure approximately 40cm of calico fabric which was then rolled and flattened and stitched to secure its position. With this long strip of fabric, I stitched the ends onto the inside top hem of the body. To create a neater edge, I flipped the ends inside twice. The method was repeated with the second handle that was positioned on the opposite side.

With the now, bare tote bag, I stitched on the ready-made smock that was produced over the past day or so. Turning the rough edges and then tacking enabled stitching to be a lot easier. The composition of the smock was most successful as the intensely textural edge contrasts against the opposite side whereby its very blunt and not as exciting.