I love to create, and I love developing my personal style, so I love-love it when a crafty project is also something I can add to my wardrobe. I made a flowered tote yesterday, and I chronicled the process in pictures so that I could share it with you! This is a very straightforward project, more like semi-homemade than made from scratch, but I still love it and I’m very pleased with how it turned out!
Supplies: plain tote, flowers, and beverage of choice (tea with coconut milk!)
I started out with a plain tan canvas tote that I bought at Old Navy a few weeks ago. I got it on clearance (maybe $7?) with the intention of prettying it up. When I saw those burlap flowers in the scrapbooking section of the craft store, I felt like they were destined for this bag.
The first order of business was to determine how I wanted the flowers arranged. I decided that I wanted them to look like they were spilling down the front of my bag and kind of tapering at each end. I had three sizes of flowers, so I thought it would look best if I concentrated the larger ones in the middle and placed the smaller ones at the end. Then, I started pinning the flowers in place.
Pin, pin, pin...
All set!
I decided to hand-sew beads into the center of each flower. I didn’t take pictures of this process, but basically I just sewed the beads on through the flower, down into the bag. This way you can sew on your beads and flowers at the same time, and remove the pins as you go.
Ooh!
And that’s it! This project took me about an hour and a half, start to finish, and was super easy. I love the way the girliness of the flowers and beads contrasts with the utilitarian nature of the fabrics (canvas and burlap). I’ll definitely be carrying this everywhere!
Hooray for easy, pretty projects!
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