Sunrise Tote

I’m always looking for my next fun project. This one leapt out at me and wrestled me to the ground! As you may have guessed, I’m quite fond of suns and anything related to the sun: sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, sunny days. I’m not so fond of cloudy days so I surround myself with anything sunny and lots of color. This tote covered both.

These colors didn’t call to me – blue sun rays? – so I chose my own. This was a great project for scraps and I was able to make the entire thing using just what I had in my stash. Nice!

The pattern had me cutting out multiple pattern pieces (17 for the sunrise) and then pinning and cutting each one out. For the rising sun, I used the yellow fat quarters I bought at the quilt show in August and the rest of the bag came from what I already had.

The pattern gave the choice of leather straps, mesh straps or cloth straps. I didn’t like the directions for the fabric straps, which is what I went with, so I did them the way I usually make straps. I cut a 4″ wide rectangle, folded it in half, ironed it, then took the raw edges and folded each edge into the center fold. Then I ironed it again and top stitched an 1/8″ in from the edge on each side. Easy peasy.

I love my new bag! Even though I don’t really need another tote bag, it definitely was a project that needed to be made. It even has an inside pocket!

Merry Christmas, everyone!