Hmmm…

Laura’s Tote

I feel that Laura’s Tote (much like Mr Laura) does not get the respect it deserves. So in need of a new tool bag for my beekeeping tools, Dave (my trusty minion) and I, will attempt to prove that literally anyone can make a great looking Laura’s Tote using the pattern. Since both Dave and I have no, none, nil, nada, bupkiss, experience sewing anything, we feel that this will be the Ultimate Test of these directions. Laura has promised to keep her hands off and let Dave and I do this ourselves. We do expect to get a brief tutorial on turning on and threading the electric thread injector and basic sewing safety when we get to the actual sewing part.

And so we begin. After some minutes of study, Dave discovered that the starting information appears on the last page or back of the pattern. This seems counter-intuitive to Dave and I but after some thought it does make sense since you would read this while the pattern is still in the package. Dave being really excited, had already taken it out of the package before we started reading it.

We have selected View B (two different fabrics), Large Tote, with Optional Pockets, as that appears to be the fancy/hardest version and we are not scared of anything (yet). We have elected to forgo the “optional beaded trim for fringe for under the rim” as that sounds too delicate for an actual tool bag. Now knowing that we need a Main Fabric and a Lining Fabric we asked Laura if she had any fabrics that have anything to do with bees and/or tools. This quickly resulted in dozens of fabrics being thrown on the cutting table and very nearly burying Dave and overwhelming me. (Laura claims that these thousands of fabrics in every nook and cranny of her sewing studio are not every fabric ever made but I find that hard to believe). After resetting by saying “I like blue” and finding out that if I go with a print then I should contrast with a stripe or solid we went with the two below.

I like blue.

Since I spent the early part of the day fixing shipping tables on the website, this will be it for session one. We expect to breeze through the cutting and fusing parts as we have Previous Experience. Things may get dicey when we use the actual electric thread injector thingy. Stay tuned