Storm Trooper Bag

Update: voting has begun at sew la vie!  


Well, as though one big challenge in November isn’t big enough (34122 words for NaNoWriMo as I draft this post!) I took on another, fortunately much smaller, challenge this month.  I’m posting a little bit today about my entry for the solids-only tote challenge that my friends from Ricochet and Away! and sew la vie! are hosting.  (Remember my Marilyn Monroe pillow?  Same group!  I couldn’t pass up another chance to work with them again!)


Basically – the challenge is to create a bag without the aid of patterned fabric.  You have to use solid colors only to create your own design.  The cool thing is, there’s still plenty of time to enter – you have through the end of the month, if this is something that sounds cool to you!  The challenge is much more collaborative than competitive, and we have an awesome pinterest board dedicated to the totes.


So I’m dying to show you! :) Have a look at my Storm Trooper bag!

My original vow was to not buy anything for this challenge, but when I had the idea, I really needed black canvas to make it happen.  So I DID spend all of $2 on this bag – everything else, I raided my stash for or found free.  Like the fantastic pattern over at Very Purple Person I used – LOVE this pattern!  I will likely use it again, this is really a fabulous (and easy!) shape.


It took me nearly 3 hours, altogether.  I spent at least 40 minutes of that trying to figure out how the eff to put in a magnetic snap, though, LOL!  I’ll show you a little bit of my technique here, though I am going to send you elsewhere for tutorials if you want to know more.  (I have a novel to write this month, after all!)


I didn’t use a pattern for the Storm Trooper.  Like my Marilyn Monroe image, I just found an image online, and simplified it to my liking.  I traced/sketched this design onto some freezer paper:

And I ironed it on.  I decided to go with a reverse applique method, so I put white fabric on the underside, and stitched on the outside of the lines I had drawn (though in some cases, I only had enough room to stitch ON the line).  I seriously just stitched right onto/through the paper for my pattern.  

I didn’t take any photos of the next part, since it’s covered in all the other reverse applique tutorials you can find out there, but I just tore the paper off (carefully) and cut the black away (again, carefully) to show the white fabric on the underside.


I have never tried reverse applique before, but I really liked the effect.  I ended up with a shabby, vintage look from using it.

Then I just had to assemble the tote!


I lined it with a pink canvas, mostly because that’s what I had, but I also like the girly touch.  

You can see I added an interior pocket and the swear-inducing magnetic snap.  (They’re really not difficult at all, once I finally just broke down and went to the internet to look for a how-to.)

I hope you like this project as much as I do!  Voting on the best tote from the challenge starts next month!


I link to these fabulous parties!