Before and After

Before: a 99 cent tea towel from Savers.
Don't you love the colour and those polka dots? I'm obsessed with this lime green.

After: a new tote bag for me. Materials other than the tea towel were from my stash - interfacing, thread, one long and one short zipper, lime green with white polka dots lining fabric, scrap of batting. I winged the pattern, using the shape of the tea towel to dictate the dimensions. It's basically a rectangle with the two bottom corners sewn at right angles to form the base of the bag. There is one large zippered pocket inside (handy for keys and the mobile, which always sink to the bottom otherwise), and another pocket on the other side with an open top. I put a scrap of quilt batting into the handles to make it more comfortable on my shoulder. I even shortened the long zipper to make it fit the opening (a process I've only tried once before with limited success, but it worked well this time. Voila, custom sized zipper). The sewing in of the zip in the top is a bit wonky, but it works!

I needed a new tote to carry my sewing project to work, and this fits the bill.

I'd show you a photo of the lovely spotted interior with my custom zipper, but the camera's memory card is refusing to give up the photo, despite me turning the air blue with swearing and jamming the card in and out of the reader about ten times. Pooh!