Halloween Totes
The most local quilt shop to me had a sale last month and naturally I bought some not necessarily needed fabric including a panel with six super cute halloween motifs. The black cat was what originally caught my wandering eye (BIG surprise) but I think the “Candy Please” graveyard is my favorite of the lot.
When I got home I decided to try my hand at making tote bags. Though the panel was newly acquired, everything else came from spare parts.
Extra backing fabric from three different quilts turned into the back panel (Hocus Pocus quilt) and the inside lining (Calvi and Denim quilts). The handles were made up of 2.5” strips I had laying around (some of the white handles are multiple shades of “white” aka beige but I’m calling it a design choice). I even used up a bunch of the smaller pieces of batting that have been plaguing my shelf space.
I didn’t follow a bag pattern, rather some basic construction tips from the internet to turn everything into a usable item. For my first quilted totes I think they turned out pretty well.
I sewed the final topstitch on, only to realize I forgot to sew tags onto any of the bags… Turning my centerfold tags into improvised flat tags seemed to do the trick because I was in no mood to seam rip all six bags open.
After finishing all the bags I also realized I have absolutely no use for these totes nor do I know any children of trick-or-treating age. Instead of turning these into seasonal grocery bags for our household I dusted the cobwebs off my Etsy shop and threw them on there in hopes they would find a home with someone who appreciates them. I didn’t pay much attention to it (not expecting them to sell quickly based on past Etsy experiences), but luckily, I randomly checked my email three days later to find 5/6 of the bags had sold the day I posted them (queue frantic scrambling trying to package and ship these items all before work). Some recycled boxes, a couple mini gummy bear packs and slightly more expensive shipping than anticipated later everyone got their bags in a timely manner and I got to relax.
The black cat bag is still available but if it doesn’t find a new home I won’t be too disappointed 🙂
