Recently, I find myself with a lot of totes hanging on a door knob. All presents from friends. Because of this, I have a tote for every purpose i.e. large grocery trips, small grocery trips, art class, for walking Jones. I don’t bother changing the stuff in it. I simply pick up the bag corresponding to my choice activity and — swoosh! — I’m out of the house!
Here’s something that actually didn’t take long to make. What took time was me obsessing my measurements and whether I’m cutting things straight. Yey to my Janome machine! It didn’t eat any of my fabric and did this work totally knot-free. After making my initial project back into sewing. When I first started working, I had all my clothes made! Then over the years, the trade just dwindled away and I was left with no seamstress. What I like best about sewing is that I get to choose and use the colors and patterns I want — be it a dress or as simple as a bag.
For this tote bag,I popped over to Craftsy dot com! There was an online tutorial I studied and went over twice showing how to make a reversible tote bag. The instruction is so clear even a sewing newbie such as myself was able to follow everything and produced something as clean as this — on both sides at that, too.
Trust me on this. I don’t sew. In fact, I only started sewing when I bought my summer colors and machine — which was two days ago.
It’s really quite amazing what a proper sewing machine (and some precise fabric scissors) can do.
Cherie Altea Bitanga finds herself constantly making food, talking about food and around people who know food. Her daily adventures go beyond her own kitchen in Singapore, spanning from the nondescript holes-in-the-wall to sumptuous dining adventures. She believes in the art of slow food and scours places in hopes of bringing home unique spices, salts and oils. She is also the occasional artist and food writer who learned how to cook early in life by inheriting culinary family traditions from her motherland: the Philippines.
For over a decade, this blogger’s career as an ESL instructor provided a multicultural atmosphere working with diplomats, celebrities, nuns, priests, politicians as well as high school and college students from all over the world. When she grows up, she hopes to cook for a living to celebrate her family’s culinary legacy.
