Thursday, March 15, 2012

I totes needed a new tote

Tote bag"Well, ducks", said Sabrina the dress maker's dummy as she made sure her scarf was snugly around her neck, and her bag securely upon her shoulder, "I'm off! Best of luck, au revoir, and remember that if you can't be good, at least be interesting."
"Nooooooo!", came the cry simultaneously from clothes in the wardrobe, threads from the drawer and sewing machines in the bureau. "What will we do without you and your snappy retorts to keep us all in line?"

One poor needle fell into a blind panic, and scraped her way across the floor to fall at Sabrina's feet. "Don't leave us!" she begged, tears welling up in her eye. "I shall be dull, and then pointless without you. No, truly - if I am dull then I am pointless. Don't let this happen to me. Don't gooooooo!"

"Ach, you daft gits", scolded Sabrina with gruff affection. "I'm not actually going anywhere - I'm just pretending since I'm all got up in this here knitted cowl and tote bag combination. But I tell you, I may just consider taking my mannequin services elsewhere if Jorth doesn't put that knitting aside and start clothing me in new sewn creations again. Knitting is all very well and good, but it doesn't keep this dummy sufficiently warm at night!"
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I hate green bags. You know the ones that everybody and his dog carries dutifully to the supermarket these days? Yes, those, the ugly ubiquitous green things. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not anti-bring-your-own-bag at all. As a non-driver, I am a master at hauling, toting, shouldering, lugging my groceries home in a reusable bag. And I think it's marvellous that for every bag brought from home, that's one less plastic bag used. But why, oh why do the green bags have to be so darn fugly? And stinky, if anything ever gets spilt or leaks in them. Urgh! Have you ever tried to wash one? I have, and they start shredding and going all weirdly lumpy in odd places yet also become threadbare. Quite an achievement!

So the other day I decreed No more! I can't take those hideous bags any longer. Bracing myself, I delved into my stash (cue the Stashbusters! soundtrack - kinda like the Ghostbusters one, but with better, more embarrassing dance moves) and found this heavy weight Japanese cotton. Just the thing, I thought, and promptly wasted no more time in devising a bag pattern and then cutting it out. I lined it with calico, and had the whole thing sewn up in less than an hour. Hooray!

So now, even though I may be lugging home litres of milk, heavy packets of lentils, kilos of flour, and am sweaty and disheveled from the effort, at least I'll be lugging it home in one stylish tote.

Let me know if you want the recipe, and I'll write it out for ya.
Must go - I have a Ghostbusters theme song to hum mindlessly for the rest of the day. Catchya!

7 comments:

  1. Gorgeous! I hate the green bags too.

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  2. I have heard some pretty questionable things about the sustainability and "green"ness of a lot of the reusable bags that are sold---especially since a lot of them aren't very sturdy and will be in the landfill after a year or two, and most can't be recycled... which isn't to say the plastic bags are better, but it's worth thinking about what you're carrying. This is a lovely bag. I have a shoulder-tote I usually use, but yesterday I couldn't find it and took my backpack instead, and I have to say it was a thoroughly more pleasant experience hiking back uphill with six litres of milk in a backpack rather than a shoulder-bag... ;)

    And I just love your little sewing-room dramas. :)

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  3. Tanit-Isis, that is an excellent point - those darn bags don't appear to be made of environmentally friendly materials at all!

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  4. Recipe please :)

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  5. Such a darling new tote! I hate those fugly green bags, too. And, yes, you might still be disheveled from the effort but you will most certainly be stylish!!

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  6. Nice. Do the larger things fit in it (i.e. cans and stuff) or do you put those in a separate basket? I'm in the process of cloning a green bag in canvas at the mo and was wondering what to use as the base. Buckram seems expensive and I'm not sure how it'll hold up.

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  7. Love it!!!
    Recipe please!!!! :)

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