A few weeks ago, I took my MIL to the quilting store nearby so that she could buy some material for a baby quilt for the new grandchild expected in January. While she was selecting her fabric, I discovered a fabric printed with brightly colored shoes all over it. It was next to a tote bag that was on display along with its pattern.

Since my DD has a major thing for shoes – I decided that it would be fun to make up this tote bag using that shoe print fabric. I purchased the necessary fabric and took a copy of the free pattern. Last week, I worked on the tote bag project and took a time out from knitting.

I actually made three tote bags. I picked up some other fabrics at Wal-Mart, so that I could do a prototype before I actually used the more expensive shoe print fabric. It was a good thing I did so – because my first tote bag was HUGH – much larger than I had envisioned – the tote has a 12” by 12” bottom and is actually larger than those reusable bags you can buy at the local grocery store.

So, I revised the pattern and made it smaller. Hence, I did another prototype before I finally made the tote with the shoe print fabric.

I am happy with the final results and now have a tote bag for my DIL as well as my DD.