Lotta Jansdotter's All-Day Tote.

I was cleaning my sewing area this morning (it does happen, very infrequently) and found an unfinished project, the "All-Day Tote" from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing.  This book has a lovely Scandinavian minimalist aesthetic, and it's a great book for a beginning sewist. The projects really are "simple."

The All-Day Tote is a simple tote bag with a few pockets.

I've made it once before, from denim lined in brightly colored vintage tea-towels. Unfortunately, I didn't blog it. Although it didn't turn out perfectly, that was a hard gift to part with!

So, about a year ago, I decided to make one for myself, in gray wool lined in some of my beloved Joel Dewberry orange faux bois fabric. I love this fabric so much.  It's one of my favorite fabrics ever. It's mid-century modern, quirky, tongue-in-cheek, and it's orange! Which is why it was just wrong that I only bought a yard or two of it when it was available. Now it is out of print. (Dewberry still makes wood-grain quilting cotton, but the precious and never-to-be-seen again fabric is a heavier twill with a dreamy soft hand.)

This has caused me serious and lasting regret. Why didn't I buy more? Why? Why didn't I get some in green too? Whyyyyyyyy? 

For kicks, check out the last project I used this fabric for - Joe was just a little dude! Those were the best pants ever, and I kept putting them on him even when they had turned to "man-pris."

But I digress. So anyway, I cut out and interfaced the pieces for this All-Day Tote about a year ago, but then Christmas hit, and I set it aside. It was forgotten for a variety of reasons, including that I found some aspects of the project intimidating, and I think I had a premonition that it wasn't going to be all that I had hoped.

Today, cleaning off my sewing table, I carefully packed away some other unfinished projects, but took a second look at this one. Hmmm, I thought, I could just finish this. Right now.

And so I did. It was no problem. I don't know why I was intimidated (perhaps I'm a little more confident now than I was a year ago). It only took an hour or two.

Here, I tried to recreate the photo in the book. What? The photo in the book was not indoors and in front of a dog crate? Quiet, you.

Oh jeez, are those sewing threads still hanging from my cardigan? My blog is totally super polished.

It's a fine little tote, if a little bit floppy (and I interfaced the living daylights out of it!). It will be handy for the farmer's market and the library and hauling Joe stuff around. I used a different wool plaid with a bit of orange for the handles.

Glamor shot on ironing board.

The lining is a bit baggy. I really should go back in there and shave a little bit off the bottom all around. But after languishing on my sewing table for a year, what are the chances?

Here, it is holding my reading glasses, keys, wallet, and my current novel, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. I know, you can't even see that enormous book in there, but it's in there, trust me. Anyway, you know, just the bare essentials. There is room for a lot more. I could fit The Grapes of Wrath and War and Peace in there as well.

It has a magnetic closure and a key fob!

It's definitely not my best work, but it's fine. I will use it. I'm glad I finally finished it!

And it is lined in dreamy orange faux bois!