Sew Sunday: Leather Tote

It's been awhile since I did a proper DIY, and this week's earlier leather skirt got me thinking. Instead of sending it back to the GW, I decided to go ahead and make my own leather tote. 

The before. I left most of the seaming intact, and added in a panel for a bottom. I'm sure it'd look even better with a proper lining and stabilizing bottom, but I'm lazy. Things I learned: Sewing on the suede side is fine, even on my dinky machine, but if you're sewing on the leather side, use a bit of stiff paper (I used some index cards) to help the material slide. You can rip it off the stitches later. Wish I had done that with the top seam. It would have been neater.

I used some handles off my old PVC bag that was too busted up to keep carrying, but it had my favorite style handles. So awesome bag: get!

 I still have some leftover leather bits so I stocked them away for later projects, but I really love how this turned out. Now I have a suede over the shoulder bag and a proper black leather tote that's big enough for my Nook, wallet, and phone.

Also a bonus to my readers - I found this bag of buttonflowers already packaged up in my old purse. I'm willing to let this goodie bag go for $5+shipping. I don't know exactly how many are in it, but it's primarly green and blue. If you're interested, shoot me an email at Ecc3ntriccynic[at]gmail[dot]com

Don't forget - Fashion Challenge week starts next week. If you haven't signed up already, hit the badge in my sidebar to take you to the sign up page~!