A Swap, A Tote

After the sewing summit, I received an e-mail about a post sewing summit swap; which I decided to jump on.  This was my first "handmade" swap, so admittedly I was a little apprehensive.

Now most of you are swap veterans, so you can skim past the details to the good part.  ;)

The idea of the swap was to keep up with something we learned from sewing summit.  Everyone who wanted to be involved filled out a "profile" form with likes, dislikes, what they would like to receive, etc.  My one sewing class was a pocket one, so I thought this project would be good. 

My partner (who I will not reveal as she has not received this yet) said she would like to receive a zippered or metal frame pouch, a tote bag, or a pin cushion.  I fixated on making a tote.  What's silly is that tote bags are probably one of the easier bags to make (depending on how you make yours), yet they are not my strong suit.

However, I am also not one to back down from my faults challenges!

I found this pattern in an issue of Modern Patchwork.  Duck fabric makes up the body and the pocket is pieced with fabric from Pat Bravo's Indie collection.  The original pattern had interchangeable pockets, which I decided not to do.  It also did not call for lining the tote, but I did do that to make it seem a little more refined.

I hope she likes it!