I sat down to write this weeks post and I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to talk about this green leather tote bag and clutch I made, but didn’t know where to start. Writer’s Block. It happens. I was annoyed and slightly concerned as I knew I had a list of other things that I wanted to get done before the kids came home from school. I googled “Fall Writing Prompts” to see if I could find some inspiration. It kind of feels like cheating, but again I had other things I needed to do, so I felt like I had to get this done. I know poor planning on my part.
So I did what any good former English Major does in this situation…I started brainstorming.
I started thinking and writing. The next thing I knew I had 4 pages of a composition notebook (an extra school supply my son didn’t need) filled with ideas. Not only did I have this week’s post figured, but now I had 4 pages of notes for future posts, and it made me really happy. Yay me!
I know what you’re thinking. I write a blog post every week this shouldn’t be so hard. The truth is I have been working so hard these last few months getting my blog up and running. So much goes into to creating a blog, and when I started it I wanted to go all in and make it really great. I’d been focused on so many other parts of the blog that I feel like the writing has been on autopilot.
So that’s my new goal, to work on my writing. The sewing and craft part of the blog come pretty easy to me, but being a former English Major, I know I can do better. What hat better time to focus on a goal than fall? It’s back to school and a time to start fresh. Anyway, that’s what I’ll be doing.
So that’s it folks, my two-cents for the week. Hopefully, this post may have inspired you to make a fresh start of your own.
Now on to the tutorial!
Green Leather Crocodile Tote Bag
I bought this crocodile embossed leather at Mood Fabrics last year. I love the color. It might look black in the photos but it’s actually dark green. It yelled Gucci as soon as I saw it. I knew if was going to make some sort of Gucci inspired bag I would need some of the iconic green and red stripe trim to go with it.
I found this bag strap and this matching striped trim on Etsy. Like I have said before you can find anything craft related on Etsy.
Materials for Green Leather Crocodile Tote Bag
- Leather or faux leather for bag
- Leather or faux leather for the tassel
- Fabric for lining
- Lightweight interfacing
- Bag strap and coordinating trim
- Double Fold Bias Tape
- D rings
- Lobster clasp
- zipper
Instructions for Green Leather Crocodile Tote Bag
- Cut leather, lining and interfacing 19″x 16″ – you can make it any size this is how big mine is.
- Fuse interfacing to the lining.
- Cut out a 2″ square in the bottom corners of the leather and the lining.
- Sew your stripe trim down the center of one of the leather pieces.
- Make a mark about 2 inches in from the top edge of your leather on the wrong side of both leather pieces.
- Take a 2 inch piece of coordinating bias tape and wrap it around the d-ring and stitch across to hold it together.
- Lay your zipper with the pull facing the right side of the leather and clip the zipper to the leather.
- Flip the leather and zipper over and slip the d-ring in between the zipper and the leather where you made your mark. The bias tape should be sticking out.
- Follow the instruction for this bag to attach your fabric pieces and zipper and to sew the rest of the bag together.
- Check out this post to learn how to make the bag tassel.
*Note – when sewing with leather be sure it’s not too stiff. It will make the final step of turning it inside out very difficult.
The best thing about this tote bag is that it’s very big. Big enough to fit everything, and I mean everything, you need in it. I didn’t realize just how large it was going to be until I started sewing it together. That’s what made me decide to sew the coordinating clutch. It helps to keep everything inside a little more organized, and it’s a great little bag to carry on its own. That’s a win win in my book!
Stay tuned for a future post for the tutorial on how to make the matching clutch. Hope everyone is off to a good week. Thanks for reading!
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