GeoCentric tote

When I heard that I could play with some Cloud9 canvas from their newly released line GeoCentric II, I jumped at the chance. I received (3) - 1/2 yards of canvas. I was asked to use at least two of the Cloud 9 fabrics to construct a bag. I could add one solid fabric to it if I chose. I love a good challenge!

When the fabric arrived, I was delighted and surprised at how soft and pliable the canvas was. I did have to use a heavier duty needle and it sewed up beautifully!

I thought with such strong geometric patterns, I picked out a soft bottom weight fabric with a soft grey that in person, matches the grey in the Geocentric line perfectly. It was a little boring right there between the red and grey prints. So I double stitched some folds down to add a little texture to the bag.

Maybe 20ish years ago, in Junior High (let's call it 10 years ago though), we made Esprit-esque bags in Home Ec. They were large totes with one big pocket on the front. The bottom corners were stitched by making a fold in the middle of the bottom of the bag, and then sewing the fold into the side seams. This makes a little dimensional triangle fold on the outside of the tote. Of course we used a serger and the inside of the totes were unlined. I have always loved the way the totes were boxed that way. I thought it would be a fun little detail on this bag. I did want a totally lined bag though. An unfortunate thing about boxing a tote like this is all kinds of little things accumulate in the inside of that little triangle fold. I like when all my seams are unexposed in bags and things don't accumulate in the extra folds. So on my lining, I changed up how I made the bottom of the bag. I just boxed it the same way most of the bags I see today are boxed. It nestles nicely into the outside of the bag. I also made the lining of the bag a little taller, so that I could fold it over the top and outside the bag. I thought that little bit of grey was a fun touch.

I had a lot of fun with the hardware on the bag. I also used some grey webbing topstitched to the underside of the handles. I did this both for stability and for a little fun detail.

The bag is lined with Pellon Shape Flex I think it just adds enough structure to this bag.

Inside the bag is a magnetic closure and on one side there are sectioned pockets for my phone and a few other bobbs and bits.

The fabric is so gorgeous! It is absolutely something I would love to sew with again.

Thanks so much Cloud 9 and Sew Mama Sew! for letting me play with this gorgeous new line!