How to Sew a Tote Bag

The inspiration for this project came from seeing the bag Maja Delborn, @majade on Instagram, made using secondhand fabric. Maja’s tutorial (in Swedish) on Erikshjälpen Secondhand’s website.

I didn’t end up making one just like hers but I was inspired by her when I made mine. She inspired me to shop for fabric in my local secondhand store and I found a similar gingham pattern as she used.

This is my process for designing and making a tote bag. The steps won’t be super detailed and I encourage you to learn as you make. I will try to explain my reasoning and problem-solving, as well as some learnings in the end. 

Buy Fabric

The first step is to gather all of the material. I got all my fabric from the thrift store Myrornas. Some would say that you should have a pattern before buying material but that’s not how I roll 🙂

The black and white gingham fabric used to be a curtain and came with a nice lace on the hem. 

Tote Bag material
The material used:
  • Fabric for the outer layer
  • Lining for the inside
  • Fabric for the strap. Can be the same as the outer layer
  • Thread
The tools used:
  • A sewing machine
  • Needle and a thimble (for hand sewing)
  • Pencil or fabric marker
  • Iron and ironing board
  • Measuring tools
  • Scissors

Measure and inspect the fabric

I prepared the fabric by doing the following steps:

  • Ripping the seams that I didn’t want to save
  • Inspect it for stains and holes
  • Wash, dry, and iron
  • Measure 

I wanted to measure the fabric after I’ve washed it in case it would shrink. I didn’t expect it to shrink since it came from the thrift store and had probably been washed previously. 

Make a sketch

If you already know what you want to do this step won’t be necessary.

It might make sense to do this step before going out to look for fabric so that you know how much you need to buy. Since I used thrifted fabric, the unique constraints and possibilities of the fabric impacted the possible designs, and therefore I sketched after.

 I wanted to save the lace and use it in the bag in some way so I tried different designs that would show off the lace. I decided on a tote where I save the entire lace and make a strap out of it, and attach it to the outside of the bag. 

The constraints that I had to work around: 

  • The fabric was heavily bleached by the sun on the front, so I had to use the back as my front
  • Measurements of the curtain was 68 cm by 234 cm

Features that I wanted to show off:

  • Lace trim on the front of the fabric
Sketch of Tote Bag Design

The sketch shows the measurements of the fabric, some design ideas, and the shape I needed to cut the fabric in. 

Make a prototype

To make sure that my 234 cm strap would be a good length for the bag I made a very simple prototype using a string and a backpack. I cut a string that was the same length as my fabric and tied the ends to form a loop. Then placed the string around my backpack to see how long the handle would be and how tall the tote could be. 

This step is of course optional but I recommend it to get a feel for the bag. I’m short, so a real pet peeve of mine is when a bag touches the ground when I carry it in my hand. I also wanted to make sure that I could carry it over the shoulder. 

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Cut out your pieces

First I cut off the fabric for the strap. I made the strap wide enough to be able to fold in the edge. 

I wanted my bag to have a squared flat bottom so I folded the fabric to a rectangle with the height I decided on from my prototype plus a bit extra to fold down.

To make the square bottom I measured and cut a rectangle on each corner of the folded edge. If the vertical side of the rectangle is 2 cm, the horizontal should be 2cm + seam allowance. 

Fabric and Lining

Sew

Prepare your machine to start sewing! You can sew by hand as well if you prefer that. 

The Strap

It’s probably a good idea to zigzag the edges, but I didn’t. I just folded and ironed the edge and used a straight stitch. 

I started off by machine but got annoyed by the slight mismatch of the square pattern that happened while sewing so I ripped it and started over by hand. 

I would recommend getting a proper thimble if you sew by hand. I had to stuff my thimble with fabric to be able to use it, so I frequently removed it. My fingers were pretty sore by the end! 

The Lining and Outer Layer

Sew a straight stitch down the sides and finish the edge the way you prefer. I did a flat felled seam for both the lining and the outer layer. I recommend watching this YouTube video to get tips on how to finish the edges: 10 Seam Finishes Without a Serger by Enchanted Rose Costumes.

Attach the lining to the outer layer

Note: I should have attached the strap before this step, but I forgot and had to attach it after. If you want to attach the strap now, make sure to not attach it all the way up to the raw edge of the outer fabric since it will be folded down when the lining is in place. 

It might be a bit tricky to understand how to sew the lining and outer layer together. For me, it helped to pause a bit before I started sewing and really figure out how to place the lining and the outer fabric so that I would be able to attach it and turn it right sides out. 

  1. Turn the outer layer right side out
  2. Turn the lining wrong side out
  3. Place the outer layer inside the lining, with both right sides facing each other
  4. Match the side seams of the lining and the outer layer
  5. Sew along the top and leave some room open
  6. Turn the lining inside out
  7. Admire your work before moving on to closing the opening 🙂
Sewing a Tote Bag Illustration

Topstitch

I chose to sew down my lining with a straight stitch so that it wouldn’t move and I topstitched the edge of the bag. This is optional but I wanted to make sure that the fabric didn’t move when carrying the bag. 

Finishing the hems with a topstitch

Attach the strap to the outer layer

The last thing I did was to attach the strap. If you do this as the last step you will have to sew through the outer layer and the lining. If I were to make this again I probably would try to attach the strap before the lining but not attach it all the way up. 

I used a straight stitch along the strap and finished by sewing squares at the tops to make sure that the straps were attached properly. 

Strap Placement on Bag

Learnings

What would I do differently?

  • I would attach the strap before the lining so that the stitch from the strap wasn’t visible on the inside.
  • I would choose a lining that is a bit thicker that is easier to sew, and isn’t see-through. 
  • Construction-wise I would make the base of the bag bigger, making it more suitable to carry groceries. If I wanted to carry my laptop and work stuff I would instead make it narrower on the width.