Truth is Out There Celine Tote Bag - Knitorious Fabric Strike

I don't know about you, but circle bags are a little intimidating to me. With patience, many staples, and some seam ripping, I can make them work, but it's not my favorite shape to make. That being said, the bagmaker panels from Knitorious Fabric are super fun and cute, so I was willing to attempt it. Fortunately for me, I realized I don't HAVE to make it a circle! With a little bit of planning and some patchwork sewing, I was able to turn it into a fun tote bag, the Celine from Swoon!

The inside of my light box looks a little like a spaceship, so I decided to embrace it.

The other panel, with my abduction lighting...

The nice thing about canvas is that it doesn't always need to be interfaced. The Celine is a super slouchy tote bag (which makes pictures a challenge!) and I was tempted to leave off all the interfacing, but I wanted to give it a little more structure. I probably would do foam or at least fleece if I make it again, just to give the bag even more structure, but this one turned out fine! My Lemon-Lime Waterfalls vinyl was a softer one, from Wizardry, Stitchery, and Crafts, so I interfaced it too! 

Crescent vinyl has a slight pattern and really catches the light!

The pattern has a zipper pocket on the outside, but I didn't want to mess up the fun panels, so I moved it to the inside. It was a late night sewing marathon, so pay no attention to the slightly crooked zipper...instead look at the pretty star!

Blame the aliens, pretty sure it's their fault. Probably.

That lining is pretty amazing

There are also some clips to make the bag have a fancier shape (that's probably the reason, I'm guessing), but you could leave them un-clipped and use them to hold keys or a small wallet with a ring or connector on it! The pattern calls for vinyl for the tiny straps, and then you leave it with the raw edges. My perfectly alien colored green vinyl has a fuzzy back, so I decided to switch to some seatbelt webbing from Wizardry, Stitchery and Crafts.

Unclipped and the straps are going wild!

All clipped up

You can leave them clipped when unzipping, but I think that would annoy me.

The bagmaker's panel has enough fabric included to make the circle style bag, but since I ended up going for a larger bag, I had to stretch my fabric with the vinyl and some swirly space looking fabric from my stash. I also had to be pretty creative cutting some of the pieces, so the top has all the different fabrics, including some of the leftover blue from beside the panels!

I wish there was more of the damask on the panel, it's so fun! And so is the rocket ship zipper pull!

This bag has pretty minimal hardware, the top zipper, a zipper pocket, the inside clips, and then rings for the straps. The straps are pretty short, which worked out nicely for my limited fabric piece! I used the nightmare zipper tape from Wizardry, and I think the star pull might have come from there, but no idea where I got the rocket ship! The giant rings are some I actually ordered from Tandy Leather without realizing how HUGE they were, but I kind of like them now!

I asked for photoshop assistance, I think this is pretty fun!

 Be sure to check out the fun fabric options at Knitorious, and if you miss this round, stalk the previous round preorder options, sometimes fabrics make a surprise return!