Craft Knife: Five Reversible Tote Bags

I wanted to use my obnoxiously large stash of felt to make enough tote bags that we wouldn't ever have to get paper OR plastic at the store ever again.

GOAL ACHIEVED!!!

Since I also wanted to de-stash my felt, I deliberately over-engineered these bags by making them reversible--

--AND I deliberately over-designed them by adding hand-cut felt applique embellishments to one side. Here's the tote that I designed, with my interlocking gear appliques that DO look as cool as I'd hoped they would, but all that changing direction to sew all those gear teeth was a massive pain in the butt:

I wanted the kids to each create a tote design. Syd went super simple with a single cupcake--

--but Will went all out by hand-drawing, hand-cutting, and sewing--

--EVERY SINGLE ASTROLOGICAL SIGN onto her tote bag. How awesome is this bag?!?

It's my new favorite thing.

Remember how I used to do craft fairs, back when the kids were tiny? It's been a VERY long time since I've set up at a craft fair, and yet I still had the felt tablecloth I made to use at my booths.

Now that felt tablecloth is a tote bag!

So now I've made a new stash of cloth napkins to replace paper napkins, I ripped an old sheet up into dish cloths to replace paper towels, I've got enough tote bags to hold all of our groceries, and the only thing left on my to-do list is to make some more mop pads for my steam mop.

Technically, the store-bought mop pads aren't disposable, but they ARE all microfiber, which is also terrible for the environment. If you want mop pads made from natural fibers, you pretty much have to make your own.

So if you find me on Facebook busily cutting up my old towels and stitching 2" elastic onto them, that's what I'll be doing!

Six Months Ago: December Favorites: The British Navy, Suicidal Misanthropes, and Drawing with Waffles

One Year Ago: June Favorites: Good Omens and Good Dragons

Two Years Ago: How to Make a Wood Burned Leather Bookmark

Three Years Ago: Greece with Kids: The Acropolis, Falafel, and Feral Cats

Four Years Ago: Homeschool Field Trip: The Tulip Trestle Beam Bridge

Five Years Ago: Compound Sentences against Humanity

Six Years Ago: Magnetism and Electricity Self-Directed School

Seven Years Ago: New Haven, Connecticut, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Eight Years Ago: At Turtle Park

Nine Years Ago: A Horse and Pony Obstacle Course

Ten Years Ago: Drawing Dinosaurs