Hello dolls!!!
Looking for a fairly easy sewing project/Christmas gift idea?
How about a personalized initial tote bag???
I made two of these for my sisters in law so far and each one was fairly easy to put together.
(They were birthday gifts that they’ve already received… so no worries on a spoiler alert! haha)
Each one was also completed in just about half an hour.
You could easily whip up several of these for your loved ones this Christmas!
First, I used some of the sew-able interfacing from Silhouette America, cut it down to the size of my fabric and ironed them together per the instructions on the interfacing package.
Then you can use your Silhouette SD, Cameo, or other cutting machine to cut out your fabric initial. Or if you don’t have a cutting machine, you can trace then cut an initial with scissors.
Once it cuts the initial out and you peel away the extra fabric, you’ll have your letter to sew on to your tote.
The interfacing is meant to be ironed on to hold down whatever you are planning to sew on, until it’s sewn of course.
So… you’ll need to iron the initial to the tote, then you can start sewing.
Be careful while sewing not to sew one side of the tote to the other… Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything… I may or may not have done that with a pillow cover recently… 😉
Once your initial is sewn on you can add some pretty embellishments like rolled fabric rosettes or ribbon around the top. For the ribbon I just hot glued one end on to hold it in place, then sewed around the top and bottom of the ribbon.
I used for my rosettes, but here’s a little tip I just figured out…
If you want an idea of how the rosettes look before gluing or sewing them on… Pin them to your tote first, then you can rearrange them to your liking BEFORE affixing them! 😉
That may sound silly to some of you, but to me that was monumental! haha
There you go! 
You can now stuff with goodies or gift as is for a fun personalized gift your recipient can use all year round!
What are you hoping to receive this Christmas???
oooh my gosh! I love this! such a perfect gift! I'm kinda scared to cut fabric with my Cricut though!
love the rosettes that you added.
I think it would be to somehow someway incoporate abunch of rosettes to create a mongram for a bag. new project for myself possibly.
beautiful! thanks for the inspiration.
awesome bag, that is a great idea!
http://shannonolson.blogspot.com/2011/11/childrens-art.html
What a beautiful gift! I love the idea of filling it with goodies.:)
Shiloh
everydaygameplan.net
Those letters turned out super nice. Sometimes after I cut fabric I have a hard time making it look the way I want. I would like to invite you to post this on my linky at http://eyehearttoday.blogspot.com/2011/12/last-weeks-linky-party-was-success-and.html
This is exactly why I wish I knew how to sew! These are just adorable!
What a great gift idea!! I LOVE this!! Of course, I LOVED the bridesmaid bags you made too!