Basket Tote by Sew Can She

Since being sidelined with foot surgery, I've had time to catch up on things that have "caught my eye" online.  I enjoy following blogs and one of the bloggers I follow is, Sew Can She by Caroline Fairbanks-Critchfield.  She is a fan of Pinterest and frequently found pictures for projects with no instructions.  So she runs a monthly poll on her blog giving fans the opportunity to vote on which project they'd like to see made into a pattern.  Big bonus is her patterns are free!  This tote was posted in February 2017 and I saved it hoping to have time to make it.

I made mine out of Essex Linen denim (love essex linen) and some cotton fabric I had in my stash.  The piping was a bit tricky but I worked it out by being persistent.  The trick was to sew on the piping and turn it right side out to make sure that the raw ends were encased and that the basting sticking was invisible.

The handles were tricky.  There were a couple of tutorials the website led me to and because my lining had some rayon in it, when I turned them right side out, I punched through the end of one.  That handle isn't perfect (design element!)  

There were 2 options for closing the tote: magnetic snap (my choice) or a zipper.  There was a small slip pocket on the pattern but I never use those so I omitted that from mine.  In the end, it turned out fairly well.

One note about the website, Sew Can She.  It is LOADED with ads.  I worked off an inexpensive chromebook and the number of ads causes my computer to freeze.