Great Tote Bag With Pockets

 Tote Bag with 4 Pockets - Great Craft bag 

The next bag I wanted to make was this great Tote with 4 pockets. I thought it would make a useful craft bag. The design incorporates the  pockets with the outside of the bag from a series of folds and so no need to line up the pockets and sewing on the outside before putting the bag together. . Another great bag from Ae PooiM.  Having purchased some lovely end of rolls fabric on Ebay to recycle into useful bags, this 4 pocket Tote Bag was the perfect fit. 

I have added the link for the bag below.

https://youtu.be/Vsjj-Oie-iA

The beauty of this bag is the simplicity. The pockets and bag are made from one piece of fabric, with handles and the lining added. The sizes and pattern pieces from Ae PooiM are easy to make up. I made the first couple of bags as shown in the video, and then decided to adjust it a little as I wanted a little more room between the top of the pockets and the top of the bag. .Once I had a shape I really liked I set about making 5 more and this time I timed the make to see how long each bag took to make. If I wanted to sell the. Bags at a craft fair I needed to have a pricing structure based on cost of materials and time to make.

This size makes a perfect craft bag. The 4 pockets can hold the tools, with the main body of the bag taking the crafts. 

Here is the one I made earlier for my craft club trips.

Pockets have glues, gems, ribbons, ,dies, and glue gun

While the main body has the card,  pens, watercolours, scissors and general use items.

I love the fact that all these bags are made from reclaimed fabrics. They are end of rolls from fabrics used for soft furnishings. This means that every part of the roll has been used with no resources wasted.  

I have now made a few ready for my craft fair in August, and have put some  in my Etsy shop, as well as cutting out a few more ready to make. Next I have to consider a price. Whilst the fabric has been sourced at a great price, I still need to consider the fabric, sewing cotton, wear and tear of my machine (just serviced at a cost of £54, as well as the time taken to make the bag. This large bag requires a length of 52”, and the bag takes 1.5hrs to make. So I looked at other bags on Etsy and have come up with a price. £14.95. 

My next project will be the a smaller tote with no pockets and if there are any pieces off fabric left suitable to make a wallet bag I will add those as well to make a set of bags. With a bot of luck I will have a great collection of bags for future holidays. 

Happy Crafting

Dee.