This is significant. I used the machine I bought, with stash fabric, and made a giftable item. By myself, combining a couple of online tutorials. It's a lunch sack with a nice wide gusset, made from a clearance dish towel I paid 60 cents for. I even made the handle versus needing to buy webbing.
I've never made a tote bag before; it turned out really well. I'm already eyeing my stash and thinking of more bags to make. I have some gorgeous vintage printed linen dish towels that would make wonderful lined grocery totes (or maybe they are too pretty for that). The IKEA fabric I bought last month can be turned into large beach totes. My niece is so getting a Hello Kitty tote for her birthday.
The lunch tote is for my mother-in-law; a Mother's Day gift. I'd love for the gift to be entirely homemade, but I don't happen to have Thermos making skills. So I plan to purchase a stainless steel food jart to place in the bag, and hopefully a glass or stainless steel food container for items that don't need to be kept hot or cold. I'll hem a couple of napkins from a matching dish towel, and see if we can't scout out some small vintage salt and pepper shakers. Basically, I'm attempting to create a safe alternative to the vinyl lunchbox cooler and plastic containers she currently uses.
More important than the fact that I made a bag, or that I used what I have, is that I taught myself how to do something. I barely sew; every time I make an attempt my skills improve, and I gain confidence. The way I cut my dish towel I couldn't make the long handles the tutorial instructed me to make, so I made short handles. That's when I realized it should be a lunch tote. Thinking lunch tote meant the bag would need a gusset, something the original tutorial didn't call for. I found a second tutorial, and figured out the gusset. Putting the bag together, I started to see how a lined bag would work (even though I didn't line this bag).
This post isn't entirely worthless without a photo, but I will try to get one taken and posted once the sun comes back.
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