T-Shirt Tote Bag

Today's tutorial is a little late but I have a good excuse.   The weather was absolutely amazing today and I had to sit outside in the sun and soak it up...all... day... long.  OK, so maybe it's not a good excuse, but it was a good day~

So, because I'm being a lazy beach bum we're going to make something that's super duper easy, but is super duper useful, and not to mention...super duper pretty.

Here are the supplies you'll need:

Steps:
1) I'm using one of my lovely '80s looking T-knit turtleneck tops that I picked up for two whole buckaroos.  Lay out your T-Shirt and make marks similar to what I have below:



It's actually a very nice teal colour.
The exposure on my camera was a little off for this shot~

3) Cut along your lines.  You should end up with something that looks like this:

4) Turn your top inside out, pin along the bottom and stitch closed.

5)  Turn back to right sides out.  Now, you could just leave it at that and have a cute little tote bag, but as most of you know, raw edges drive me crazy.  So I have to finish mine off.  Plus, by adding some bias tape to your edges you'll reinforce everything and the straps won't stretch out to Timbuktu. 

So, lay your bias tape down, right sides together, along the edge and pin.  I started with the "armhole" edges first and did the big one last.  (This took up almost an entire package of bias tape.  If you're making a bigger bag make sure to get enough tape to do all of your edges.)

Note:  Normally you want your bias tape to match your fabric and blend in.  My fabric store didn't have dark teal blue tape though so I got a contrasting colour that will match something fun I'm going to add after.

6) Stitch right in the little ditch of the bias tape, making sure to overlap your ends.

7) Repeat this step on all of your raw edges. 

8) This is what your edge will look like with the bias tape on it.

Now just fold it to the inside.  It should just naturally roll nicely.  Give it a good pressing.  Pin it down if you have to, and then stitch about a 3/8" hem to secure the tape down.

So, now again, you could call it a day and be done, but I think it's a little boring so far.

8) So, I got adventurous with my silhouette machine and made this cute little iron on transfer.

And now...TAH DAH, now you are done~ (Although you could still add buttons or fringe or something else to totally personalize it.)

I love how it turned out!  I think it'll be great for picking up groceries or taking to the beach.  If you have some cool T-shirts with great designs already on them you could make some awesome looking bags.  What do you think?  How would you personalize it?

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Have a great week everyone.

PS, Kadie over at Seven Alive made a bag from a sweater a couple of weeks ago.  Check it out for another great transformation~