With my best friends birthday around the corner and my desire to use up some extra fabric from a quilt, I wracked my brain trying to come up with something I could whip up in a day or two. Something cute but functional that I could mail down to her in a small-ish box (those USPS rates are no joke). While staring at some squares of fabric, it hit me! “What about a mini tote bag?”
Did I look up a pattern? No. Did I watch a how-to video? No. I decided to completely wing it.
The pink, white and black floral fabric was screaming her name. I had JUST enough of these particular squares leftover to make a mini functional tote bag. The perfect size to throw a few must-haves when running out for the day or tossing some toiletries in for an overnight trip.
My original idea was to do one long strap so it could actually be a cross-body bag. However, I didn’t have enough fabric, and to be fully honest, I didn’t have the time to figure out how to attach the straps properly, so regular tote bag straps it was!
Once I got the straps attached, I remembered I had cute tags my mom had gifted me for Christmas, and I obviously needed to add one to this. I had the quick realization that I should have attached this to the inner fabric before assembling the bag, but ya live and ya learn. It was a frustrating task sewing the tag into a fully constructed bag, but once it was done…it was done!
I got it done quicker than I had hoped, and did my giddy happy dance to celebrate. I lint rolled it, put some candy and a birthday scented candle in it, and wrapped it up in a box. Then I waved goodbye as I dropped it in the post box so it could go to its new home <3
