Today I am excited to share my finished Makers Tote. I joined the
#makerstoteswap in August and I was so excited about the chance to make someone the
Makers Tote pattern by Anna Graham of
Noodlehead. I've had the pattern since it came out, and this was my first time making it.
My partners questionnaire said she liked cotton and steel, warm colors, texture, and classic blocks like stars. So I pulled fabric from my stash, made a quick stop at my local quilt shop
Quilters Crossing for what I was missing, and then got to work.
The first thing I did was paper piece the Create. and sawtooth stars.
Create is a free pattern by Kristy of
Quiet Play patterns. Kristy's patterns are some of the very first foundation paper piecing patterns I ever used when I started quilting 3 years ago, and they're still so wonderful. The stars are a free download from
Generations Quilt Patterns, they finish at 3 inches across.
My background fabric is Cotton and Steel
Sprinkle in Jelly Bracelet and the other fabrics are from various C&S charm packs that I had in my stash. I pulled all the warm colors because that is what my partner said she liked. I love that the background fabric reads neutral from far away and then up close has the hot pink dots all over it!
Another part of the pattern that I slightly changed is the exterior construction. Anna has you simply baste your exterior panel onto the soft and stable, but I decided to quilt it in a crosshatch pattern. This took more time, but I LOVE the texture it created and I feel like it made the bag a bit sturdier to stand up on its own. I used
Aurifil 50wt thread in color 2311 (my favorite neutral) for the quilting.
The only issue I ran into with quilting was that it caused the bag size to shrink slightly. Instead of being 33 inches across, it was only 32.25 inches, so I had to slice off a little of the side gussets to make sure there was plenty of room for the zipper.
I used the same Sprinkle fabric for the interior of the bag. I'm personally a fan of light colored bag interiors because it makes it easier to find things when they fall to the bottom. The pockets are various C&S prints in the same color scheme as the piecing on the outside of the bag.
I made a wonder clip cushion and sent a spool of my favorite Aurifil for two of the extras. The wonder clip cushion is a tutorial by
Squeeze Quilts. It came together really quickly, and I was able to use scraps that I had leftover!
I absolutely adore how this bag turned out, and it was totally worth the few cursing sessions that happened due to awkward bulky seams. I am so happy with my Janome 8900 and how well it handled all the layers. I didn't have any skipped stitches and the walking foot was my best friend during most of the construction.
Now I'm off to cross a few more things off of my to-do list before baby boy arrives. It's looking like my Doctor is going to schedule and induction for me sometime next week! I'm super excited but also anxious because I have several things to get done (both sewing related and not) before that happens.
