I loved this tote when I first saw it at Piece by Piece and made one of these totes for my friend, Beth, for her birthday. The pattern is called Professional Tote by The Creative Thimble.
The finished size, according to the pattern is 18" wide, 15" tall and 5" deep. Nice size, right? Well, when I decided to make one for myself, I took it my laptop to Piece by Piece to see if it would fit in the shop sample made by June Vandenberg. Sorry to say, my laptop was about 1 1/2" too wide. Bummer. Then I thought . . . tweak the pattern dummy!! How hard can it be to add width to a pattern? You're a college graduate. Make it happen!! Duh.
So off I went to thinking. (It's a bit harder to do that now that college is actually 27 years behind me. . . . 29 years behind me. Okay, okay, okay 30 years.) I also wanted to make sure the inside zipper pocket was tall enough to accommodate my laptop AND include protective foam as my interfacing. Honestly, math was not my strong suit.
When doing my "tweaking" I also decided to make some simple changes to the pattern. When I made this tote for Beth, I didn't like doing the buttonholes and cording for the side pockets. I didn't feel you could ever find "pretty" cord locks. Also, who the heck likes to do buttonholes. Certainly not me. That's more math. So I changed the side pockets to have elastic.
My finished tote is 22" wide and 18" tall. I made no other changes to the pattern. I liked the size of the front zippered pocket and the depth of the tote at 5".
Not only did I add width, but I had to add a bit of height to the inside zippered pocket to accommodate my laptop. I added foam as interfacing only to the inside zippered pocket. Let me tell you, that isn't exactly easy. There was no way that I was going to be able to sew through six layers of fabric PLUS foam, so I decided to cut my foam to lay right up to the seam allowance. That worked like a dream.
The inside of the tote is the same as the pattern, except a little length was added to the pleated and flapped pocket to make up for the expanded width of the tote. I added the optional travel strap, key fob and identification holder to complete the tote.
It was fun and everything fits in perfectly. Even my laptop, which I would show you, but I'm using it right now.
The finished size, according to the pattern is 18" wide, 15" tall and 5" deep. Nice size, right? Well, when I decided to make one for myself, I took it my laptop to Piece by Piece to see if it would fit in the shop sample made by June Vandenberg. Sorry to say, my laptop was about 1 1/2" too wide. Bummer. Then I thought . . . tweak the pattern dummy!! How hard can it be to add width to a pattern? You're a college graduate. Make it happen!! Duh.
So off I went to thinking. (It's a bit harder to do that now that college is actually 27 years behind me. . . . 29 years behind me. Okay, okay, okay 30 years.) I also wanted to make sure the inside zipper pocket was tall enough to accommodate my laptop AND include protective foam as my interfacing. Honestly, math was not my strong suit.
When doing my "tweaking" I also decided to make some simple changes to the pattern. When I made this tote for Beth, I didn't like doing the buttonholes and cording for the side pockets. I didn't feel you could ever find "pretty" cord locks. Also, who the heck likes to do buttonholes. Certainly not me. That's more math. So I changed the side pockets to have elastic.
Not only did I add width, but I had to add a bit of height to the inside zippered pocket to accommodate my laptop. I added foam as interfacing only to the inside zippered pocket. Let me tell you, that isn't exactly easy. There was no way that I was going to be able to sew through six layers of fabric PLUS foam, so I decided to cut my foam to lay right up to the seam allowance. That worked like a dream.
The inside of the tote is the same as the pattern, except a little length was added to the pleated and flapped pocket to make up for the expanded width of the tote. I added the optional travel strap, key fob and identification holder to complete the tote.
It was fun and everything fits in perfectly. Even my laptop, which I would show you, but I'm using it right now.
