Recycled Tote Bag Tutorial

Before my husband and I hired a midwife, we saw an OB/Gyn through Aurora. We received lots of pamphlets and goodies at our first visit, including a tote bag with the Aurora logo on it.

It's such a nice, sturdy bag, but I've never been crazy about being a walking billboard for businesses and products. If I could just cover up the logo, I might actually use this bag. Digging in my stash of fabric, I came across this strip of leftover border from my applique bird quilt. I saw some potential.


I just can't throw scraps away!

There was enough left over that I could just wrap this strip all the way around the bag and sew it down . Easy enough.

Here's the tutorial:

I started by tucking in the top and bottom edges and ironing them down to create a clean edge.

Then I noticed that I had so much leftover fabric that I could "double up" the fabric on one side of the bag and create pockets.

On one side of the bag, the scraps would be sewn down on the top and bottom and cover the logo.

On the other side of the bag, the "doubled up" scraps would be sewn down on the bottom edge. The top edge would be left open for pockets.

I ended up making different sized pockets by sewing down some of the seams on the scraps.

From the inside of the bag, you can see the seams that created the sides with pockets...

...and the seams covering the logo on the other side of the bag.

Finished recycled tote bag!