Happy Earth Day, Sewciety! To celebrate today, I decided to make a honeycomb tote bag with some of Mood’s eco-friendly fabrics!
My design called for 1/2 yard of Cloud Organic Cotton Twill, 3/4 yard of Beeswax Medium-Weight Linen, and 2 yards of 2″ black webbing. The gray panels and the yellow base are each 13″ squares, which makes things pretty easy. I also cut two 9″ hexagons for the front pocket, and the tote lining is made up of two 18″x13″ panels.
After cutting out all of my pieces, I sewed about 40″ of the webbing onto the back tote panel for one of the handles. I also sewed the pocket panels and flipped it right side out by leaving a small opening like you can see below. To close it, I decoratively top-stitched around the top and two of the corners, which you can see in the next section.
I then attached each of the grey panels to the base, and pinned the second strap onto the front, along with the pocket.
Now that all the panels were done, I could finally start turning them into a bag – the easiest part! All that needed to be done was fold the panels in half and sew up both sides.
In the bottom corners, you can see that I cut out a 2″ square. This creates a quick and simple base to the tote, without having to sew in a separate bottom. Just pin the cut edges together, and sew across!
To finish the bag off, I rolled the top of the lining over the outside panels, and top-stitched it down. To make the front strap a little more secure, I also sewed on two little honeycombs, with some hand-stitching details.
Now I have a cute bag to use as a purse, to carry groceries or bottles, or even something to take to the beach this summer!
