Elizabeth Hartman Sewing Circle Tote

You guys, it's finished! And only over a month late for my mom's birthday!

As I mentioned on Instagram, I'm in the middle of preparing for my first craft fair in March, but I sneaked in little bits of time here and there over the last month to make my mom an Elizabeth Hartman Sewing Circle tote for her birthday (sorry, the pattern is out of print). I used the same Elizabeth Olwen and essex linen fabrics that I used for the Perfect Tote and it came out beautifully! I love love love it.

 

I still love the quilt-as-you-go process.

 

And I love all of the pockets on this thing. There are four on the outside and then the inside is packed with pockets: two small zipper pockets with elastic pockets underneath, one large zipper pocket with an elastic pocket underneath, and two elastic pockets on the sides. That's twelve pockets! TWELVE!

 

What I didn't love was cutting out roughly 5 million pattern pieces. Or maybe it felt like 5 million because I was cutting out an identical one for myself at the same time? Mine will have to wait until after March 6, but watch out, we'll be sporting mommy-and-me matching Sewing Circle totes when it's finished! I'm going to leave the smaller handles off of mine so we can tell the difference.

I was initially a little disappointed with how floppy the tote ended up, but then I realized if I added any sturdier material the tote would have been heavier and then really heavy once it's stuffed full of sewing supplies. It is the perfect size to cram in all sorts of rulers, cutting mats, an iron, fabric, and pretty much anything else you would need to bring with you to a class or a sewing date. My mom immediately started filling it up with all of her quilting class goodies to see how everything would fit. There is PLENTY of room. There's even enough room to bring along your laptop and embroidery module if you have a fancy machine like that (my mom does, I don't).

I didn't get the nice detailed pictures that I would have liked because I admittedly forgot to take pictures until we were walking out the door to go to my parents' house. I'll take lots of pics when I finish my own!