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I designed this rag quilt tote bag especially for my Mother-in-law who loves greens and red colors. I chose to used Moda fabrics, From the My 3 Sisters line called Grace. She loved the tote bag. My MIL works at a library and reads a lot of books and magazines. This bag was specifically made large enough to hold magazines and a few books.
This bag was lined with cream muslin ( you can use any color or print) and I used a thick piece of chip board to lay in the bottom of the bag to give the bag some more stability. I then made a sleeve like a pillow case to hold the chipboard so that the bag would be all washable because the bag is used on a daily basis.
To make this bag you need:
46-3.5 inch squares of outer fabrics
46-3.5 inch squares of lining fabric
46-3 inch squares of batting (I used the 80/20 natural batting)
One piece of chip board or sturdy card board measuring 6 inch by 9 inch
a 4 inch x 23 inch piece for the straps.
cut a piece of fabric 6.5 inch by 10 inch
To sew a small pillow case for the bottom chipboard. This is NOT a must! You can ommit this part, its a personal preference.
Start by sewing together the outer fabrics sandwiched together with batting and placed in the center of the lining. All right sides of the fabric must be facing outward. No need to pin at this point. Just make sure you keep your hands on the blocks as they go thru the machine & sew a "X" thru the block and by sewing corner to corner on each block. You can chain piece these blocks together to make the process go quicker.
Make sure the quilted blocks are laid out the way you want before you sew them all together.
Rag quilting is a neat technique, if you are not familiar with rag quilting you can search on Google or YouTube for a detailed tutorial about doing this process.
Now you will need to sew the front and back pieces. There are 12 blocks total in a 3x4 piece for both front & back pieces. You will sew 1/2 of an inch seam with all seams "up" towards the outside of the bag. Pin the blocks as needed to keep the squares "SQUARE" with each other. Now you will have the front and back finished.
Next you are going to sew the sides and bottom in one long piece of blocks. This piece will be 11 blocks by 2 blocks all seams will be "up" once again. Be sure to pin all the blocks together so they match up at the corners.
Once you are done you can assemble the bag by sewing the front and back to the sides and bottom.
For the straps you will need a 4 x 23 inch piece of fabric. I used scraps to make this piece of fabric for the straps. You can choose to make it scrappy or solid.
You could also use pre-made straps from the craft store. Or you could recycle straps from an old purse or tote bag.
First you need to iron the fabric in half from the short side and them fold those halves into the center seam to make 1 inch straps that are 23 inches long.
I lined the straps with a 3/4 inch by 23 inch piece of batting to make them more stable. Then sew a seam down the long side of each strap as close to the edge as possible. then I ran the piece thru the sewing machine several times to create 3-4 long stitch lines down the long end of the straps.
When sewing the straps on the bag, measure so that both sides line up evenly. You then tuck 1/2 inch end of the strap into the top of one of the quilt blocks. If you want the straps more secure, you can back stitch over the seam when connecting the strap to the bag or you can sew a "X" on to the bag and sew a square around the X to really secure the straps.
Once you have the bag assembled, you will need to "rag" the tote bag by cutting the seams every 1/4 of an inch in snips. Be sure NOT to cut thru any stitching. When your bag is all snipped all the way around the outer seam, wash 2-3 times. Be sure to check the lint filter often because this bag will throw off a lot of lint.
Then sew together the chipboard cover for the tote bag inside base. This will look like a tiny pillow case. If you do not know how to sew a pillow case, you can look up a tutorial on YouTube.com
This rag quilt tote bag turned out beautiful. I was shocked at all the re-pins on my Pinterest account for this bag.
I also made a small quilted scrappy zipper coin purse to match for my MIL to have vending machine money at work
