I found SewVac Ltd. when I started my quilting and sewing journey; they offer a No-Sweat Summer Sewing Series, taught by Miss-Oh-so-talented Linda Jones! 🙂
She was one of the first people who welcomed me when I walked into SewVac , and her positivity and encouragement in contagious! I aspire to take more classes and lectures to learn more about quilting and sewing!
Coincidently enough, she has a class on how to sew a tote bag, so on I went! 🙂

She created a larger version take on the ayumi lunch bag, without the drawstrings on the back and a couple pockets on the inside. 🙂
We were asked to precut the fabric before class; Guess what themed tote I am going to make??

You guessed correctly, KITTY CATS!! 🙂
It was just brought to my attention that August 8th is WORLD CAT DAY!!! So I just had to make a kitty tote in honor of World Cat Day!

I had never used fusible fleece before so this was a first for me. A pleasant first, I’m happy to report! 🙂 I ironed(“fused”) some fleece on my kitty fabric and I was very excited about this fusible fleece!! I want to make more bags, or ANYTHING really, using fusible fleece, it’s awesome!

After sewing the bottom of my bag, I draw some basic cross lines to “quilt”. Some of the other students free-motion quilted their pieces, I wasn’t so brave.
I played it safe, drew on some lines and quilted away. Linda is such a great teacher, I had such a great time in her class! I’m excited to go back and complete my bag!

I was sewing so fast that Linda wanted to take a picture of me sewing away, Thank you Linda! 🙂 I love these pictures!

After quilting my bag body, I quilt the handles, and the top band that’ll go on top of the bag body.
I love how easy to make this bag is!!! I’ve been wanting to make a tote bag since I got my sewing machine but haven’t found an easy enough pattern to make, and thanks to Linda, I was able to go in and actually make a tote with a teacher around to make sure I don’t sew it all wrong! Lol

After sewing my bag together , inside out, Linda shows us how to properly cut and sew the bottom. I’m sure that if any other person had explained how to measure, cut and sew the bottom of the tote, I’d be more confused than a lab rat in a cheese maze!!!!
But Linda was very hands on, and descriptive and actually went thru the steps a couple times to show us how to do it. I don’t know about you, but I’m more of a visual learner, I need to see someone do things step by step for me to understand. And Linda was just a great teacher, I can’t stress that enough! 🙂 I’m excited that she’s going to have more classes; you can bet your bottom dollar that I will try to attend every one of Linda’s classes!

After getting the first part of the tote done, I packed all my luggage, and went home to my sweet baby ray! 🙂
I’m not sure why I can never pack lightly for anything, but I almost never forget anything I need, so I’m doing something right! 😛
I’m excited to finish this tote, please stay tuned for part 2 and thanks for reading! 🙂

Toodles for now,
Diana, Jeanie and Ray<3