All the Single Ladies [A Finish]

Last October I went away on retreat with my guild mates We hired a cottage in the wilds of Northumberland and spent the weekend sewing. You can read more about that weekend here. As part of that weekend, we swapped Sisterhood blocks - each of us made eight girls in a single colourway and then we swapped so we each came home with a rainbow of girls. I made aqua girls.

One retreater, who shall remain nameless... was making her girls on retreat. Ad she kept on singing "All the Single Ladies"... so when it came to turning my girls into a tote bag, I knew exactly what I wanted to put on the reverse... I purchased a foundation pieced alphabet pattern from From Blank Pages and started piecing. In a rainbow of course! With a scrappy low volume background. It's becoming my go to fabric pull!

I honestly don't know which is my favourite side of this tote! This time, I used the heavy weight interfacing  attached to the back of the outside panels between the panel and the wadding. I don't think it's quite as successful as when added to the lining, but it gives the bit of structure I wanted.

I originally planned to use the red spot fabric for the lining which I used on the laptop case. I had ordered a rainbow striped woven webbing for the handles, but it turned out to be out of stock, so I had to make a quick decision about replacing it. I went for my go to pink. And then when it arrived, I realised just how badly it clashed with the red spot (which is quite a corally red). Back to the drawing board. I found I had enough of the succulent print from Elizabeth Hartman to line it (and leave enough for the backing of a future quilt which one day I'll actually start), which made my day because I love this fabric.

The panels were about 21" x 21", and then I boxed the corners at 2.5". It's a very straightforward construction but it does exactly what I need it to. The only thing that I might have done differently, is that the handles are maybe a bit too long... but that's infinitely better than being a bit too short! They are definietly too long for Jess, so at least it's safe from being stolen... for the moment!

This is another Finish Along finish too!