Welcome to week 2 of the sew-along! At this point, you should have all your supplies for the bag and have cut out your fabric pieces. Now that you’ve finished that portion of the project, it’s time to quilt your pieces and assemble the handles. Let’s jump right into it!

Prepping your fabric for quilting

These are simple tips, but I find them helpful when getting ready to quilt my fabrics.

1. Make sure that, if your fabric is directional, you piece it prior to quilting.
2. Iron your fabric.

Quilting on your domestic machine

There are a few different tools and ways to mark and quilt your panels. If you have a favorite method (pin basting, spray basting etc.), use it! Here is a YouTube video I made about how I like to quilt Soft and Stable. Quilting smaller pieces can make the process a little easier than quilting up an entire yard of fabric on your machine. Try cutting out the Bag Body, End panels and Pockets an inch bigger than the dimensions listed, and make some quilt sandwiches. After the quilting is finished, you will trim and square up each piece to the listed sizes in the pattern.

Quilting with a basting spray

A basting spray can be helpful during the quilting phase of the process. I really like how easy it is to keep the layers together and that I don’t get any pin pricks on my fingers! I sprayed it on the outside because I didn’t want to get glue anywhere inside. I think I could have used a bit more glue than I did, as some of the corners came up a bit. Overall it was pretty easy and a great alternative to pinning the layers together. I found that my machine needle ended up with a little bit of glue on it, so I changed my needle after I was done quilting the panels.

Quilting guide

I love using my sewing machine guide for quilting anything on my domestic machine. I default to crosshatch quilting because you only have to mark a few lines, and I think it looks so cute! I quilted the panel in the picture below with a 1” scale. You can also find a fabric that has a pattern that is easy to follow, or even try your hand at some free motion quilting. The panels aren’t too big to manage in the machine so this might be a great opportunity to try out something new.

Trim up those quilted panels and you’ll be ready to move on to the handles!

Handles

Are you using a finished handle webbing? Or covering some strapping with fabric? You have options and both are good. I am really loving all the webbing options I’ve seen shared so far. I have some great colors of finished cotton webbing in my shop if you still need some. The pattern covers instructions for both versions.

As I was looking through the #allthethingstote hashtag this week, I came across a bag made by my friend Andi, who had extended the handles all the way around the bag and skipped folding them in half. If you have made my Patchwork Duffle pattern, you will be familiar with this technique. I decided to try it out for one of the samples I am making, so I did the math for you. If you’d like to try it too, you will need your Handles to be 105” long (just under 3 yards of webbing). Mark the center of the webbing and put it in the center of the panel, and butt the two ends together at the center on the other side of the bag. Sew them down and add reinforcement squares with X’s just like the pattern directs. Here’s how Andi’s bag turned out:

Fabric-covered strapping

Are you planning to Cover a polypro strapping with fabric? That is one of my favorite ways to add more variety to your bag. I love fabric so any way to incorporate another print excites me. If you are the same, this may be the technique for you. Using a Tube Turner for this isn’t required, but in my opinion is a GAME CHANGER when flipping tubes. The handles on this bag are made with one long piece, so it can be a pain to turn that tube with a safety pin. They are available for purchase in my shop.

Patchwork update

Did you see I finished my patchwork for the tote using the Easy Piecing Grid? I LOVED using this product and will be sharing more about this on IG this week. Stay tuned.

Fabric and special offers

If you are still looking to buy some fabric (or other supplies) for this project, you can get discounts off your order from these wonderful shops! Hurry, because the discounts are all ending soon.

Other items

Here’s the link to IG live from earlier today in case you weren’t able to see it live. IG Live week 2.

And here’s the link to last week’s IG live. IG Live week 1. 

Be sure to share your progress and see your fellow makers’ progress on IG with the #AllTheThingsToteSA2024 hashtag.

In case you missed last week’s email because you just joined this week, here’s the link to last week’s email. Below is the schedule.

Happy making,

Kait