Initial Tote - Sewing for kids

Hello there lovelies!!! Kassi from Truly Lovely here!

I'm so excited to be sharing in this fun Summer of Skills series here at Brassy Apple!

For my contribution to sewing for/with kids, I'd love to share a personalized initial toy tote!

With summer traveling comes the need for a bag to carry all that in car entertainment! This way each kiddo can have their very own tote for their own travel items!

I made two initial totes, both for girls so they have feminine touches like rosettes and pretty fabric.

Keep in mind this idea can easily work for boys as well by changing up the fabric and adding a car cutout or something more masculine!

First, I used some of the sew-able interfacing from Silhouette America, cut it down to the size of my fabric and ironed them together per the instructions on the interfacing package.

Then you can use your Silhouette SD, Cameo, or other cutting machine to cut out your fabric initial.

Or if you don't have a cutting machine, you can trace then cut the initial with scissors.

Once your machine (if you're using one) cuts the initial out and you peel away the extra fabric, you'll have your letter to sew on to your tote.

The interfacing is meant to be ironed on to hold down whatever you are planning to sew, until it's sewn of course.

So... you'll need to iron the initial to the tote, then you can start sewing.

Be careful while sewing not to sew one side of the tote to the other... Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything... I may or may not have done that recently... ;)

*This is where the sewing WITH kids part comes in. Because it's a simple sew it down project, your kiddo can help make their own tote by sewing around the initial!

Once your initial is sewn on you can add some pretty embellishments (for a more girlie tote) like rolled fabric rosettes or ribbon around the top or (like I mentioned earlier) you could add stripes or car cutouts (for a more masculine bag). For the ribbon I just hot glued one end on to hold it in place, then sewed around the top and bottom of the ribbon.

I used this method for my rosettes, but here's a little tip I just figured out...

If you want an idea of how the rosettes look before gluing or sewing them on... Pin them to your tote first, then you can rearrange them to your liking BEFORE affixing them! ;)

That may sound silly to some of you, but to me that was monumental! haha

And there you have it! A tote to carry those fun summer travel items like books, toys, etc! Like I said, each kiddo can have their own tote so things won't get mixed up.... or heaven forbid... fought over. ;)

Thanks so much to Megan for including me in her fun summer series!

Hope you'll stop by Truly Lovely sometime and say hello! :)