Fun Tote Bag Project

I've wanted one of these bags with the old linen calendars on it since I saw some at last year's Junk Bonanza. As I am only an amateur sewer, I was unable to make my own bag, so I started with this great canvas bag from Target.
These are not sold in their usual bag department. They are found as re-usable shopping bags and they have

A Target Logo on one side, (seen here from the inside of the bag) The logo does not matter as we will be covering it up. They are $5.

I like these bags because they are very large, and they have 2 strips down the front that we can use to insert our fabric into without doing too much deconstruction to the bag.

Many different things can be used to dress these bags up. Old Burlap coffee sacks, Old Linen calendars, feed sacks, flour sacks, vintage fabric, you name it.

With a seam ripper or sharp pointed scizzors, you'll need to carefully rip the INSIDE seems only all the way down as shown in the illustration above.

cut your fabric wider than the opening and longer than the opening, Tuck the fabric into the openings on each side, pin and re-sew following the old seam line. I suggest doing one side and then flattening out your fabric, then pinning and sewing the other side.

Then I folded the fabric over the top, between the 2 handles, folded the raw edge under and sewed it down, you can see the seam on the inside and outside of the bag. It gives it a finished look from the outside. As you can see I didn't bother sewing down my raw edges on the inside, I'm not a perfectionist if I'm just making something for myself.
At the bottom, I simply turned the fabric under a titch and sewed it down. I didn't even try to hide the seam, as the bottom edge of the bag will hide that part.

Now for bling. Use your imagination, attach vintage jewelry or door hardware, old locker tags or whatever you can think of. I used a couple of hinges I had.
I simply inserted some folding brads through the hinge holes at the top and bottom, and folded them down on the inside. For added strength I placed a dab of E6000 glue on the folded down part inside the bag so they won't pull out easily. If you have access to a riveter that would work as well, but it is not needed.


On this one, to hide the Target Logo from the inside I simply pinned in a pre-made pocket that I had hanging around. You could remove one from an existing bag, or simply leave it off. It's your choice.

Thats it, if you can sew a strait line you can do this project.
this bag is big enough for my lap top, files and lots of extra stuff if needed.
I will be carrying it at this year's Bonanza and filling it with all my treasures.

Cindy wrote in with some good tips, my comments are in ().
Some suggestions for future bags...you don't NEED to rip up the one side of the strap, you could fold under edges on long sides of the calendar and topstitch right onto the bag. OR lay the calendar on top of the strap and sew trim over the raw edges and strap...

Also I would have suggested attaching the hinges before you sew down the strap so that your brad ends are between the bag and the strap and don't catch on anything you put in the bag.
(this is a good suggestion, but I could not do it on my bag as the hinges lay over the seam I needed to sew, and my sewing machine does not sew through metal :). The glue that I use, seals the hinges and prevents snagging. But next time I may do as Cindy suggests and see if I can sew around the bling)
Thanks Cindy for your help.