Storage Bag

Keep your latest makes and supplies safely stored in one place with this pretty tote. Made up in Sara Lawson for Art Gallery Fabrics’ bold Jungle Avenue prints, it will add a pop of colour to your craft room. It’s also stylish enough to take to your sewing group or a workshop.

Essentials

Fabrics: printed, nine, fat quarter of each; cotton, white
Wadding, medium weight, 1m

Dimensions List

29cm x 43cm

Make a Storage Bag

Cut six 10cm squares from each of eight fabrics, leaving the ninth print to one side for the base and trim. Stitch the squares together into two panels three by three and two panels three by five. Press and pin to wadding that’s been trimmed to the same size.
Quilt in the ditch and over the squares diagonally with white thread to fix the wadding to the fabric. To make the base, cut a 29cm x 47cm piece of the fabric set aside. Pin onto wadding and quilt in the same way as the patchwork. Stitch the panels to each matching side of the basket base, stopping 5mm from each end.
Stitch the sides of the basket together using the 5mm seam allowance left unsewn from before. To give the basket shape, fold each seam wrong sides together and topstitch 3mm from the edge. Cut two strips of any fabric 8cm x 45cm.
Fold each one in half, right sides together, and lay on top of a 4cm wide strip of wadding. Stitch down the open side through all layers and turn right side out, enclosing the wadding. Pin to the second and fourth patch on each long side of the basket to make handles.
Cut the remaining base fabric into 8cm wide strips and sew end to end to make a continuous piece 1.5m long. Trim strips of wadding 4cm wide, and place on the wrong side of the fabric strip. Fold the fabric over to enclose the wadding and tack.
Pin the padded border strip around the top edge of the basket, passing over the handles. Trim the ends of the strip to 1cm longer than necessary. Fold in the raw ends and slip stitch together to complete the trim.
Make a lining from white cotton using two 29cm squares and three 29cm x 47cm sections, sewn together in the same way as the basket outer. Leave a 20cm gap in the centre of one long edge for turning.
Slip the inside out lining over the right side out basket and line up the top edges of the basket, handles, border and lining. Sew together and turn out through the gap in the lining. Fold in the edges of the gap and topstitch closed 2mm from the edge. Push the completed lining into the basket.