April's snappy tote!

The bag I made for April is pretty simple, and it uses something that many of us have around our house: metal tape measures.  Especially broken ones.  What, you don't keep those?

This past summer I went on a missions trip with my church's youth group (I went as an adviser, NOT a youth :)), and one of the boys, in his haste to look cool, broke a tape measure.  It was in the garbage pile, and I salvaged it from the jaws of death!  Or I grabbed it from the top of the pile and shoved it into my backpack.  It didn't really fit though, so all day everyone was asking me why I had a tape measure sticking out of my backpack, and why I wanted a broken one, and my answer of, "I have a bag pattern that uses a metal tape measure," got me looks of confusion, so I just started saying, "I'm going to use it for something."  That seemed to satisfy most everyone.

Anyway, I've finally made the bag with my broken tape measure, and it's so great!  I made the tote size, which ended up being around 15.5" tall without handles, 15.5" wide, and 5" deep, and the pattern I used has the tote size and a purse size, which is around 10" square.  The broken tape measure is in the casing of the bag, to keep it snapped closed when you're not using it.  Cool, huh?

This bag also has two pockets inside, for holding all of your important things!

This is an excellent bag for highlighting that piece of fabric that you've seen in the shop, but don't know what to do with because you can't bear to cut it up.  And, you'll look totally fab sporting it around town!

Since there are two bags in this pattern, we'll be offering two kits, one for the purse and one for the tote.  The prices will be as follows:

Kit and class for the purse size (10" square) is $30.
Kit and class for the tote size (16" square) is $41.

Please call the shop at (207)764-3800 or email sylvia@gardengatefabrics.com for more info or to sign up for the class, which will be scheduled for April 30 at 10 am.