**Free Pattern: Bow Tote — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/free-pattern-bow-tote/

Learn to sew a chic and practical bow tote with Christine Lindebak, perfect for beginners and customizable with various fabrics and colors.

## Key Takeaways

- The bow tote is beginner-friendly and quick to sew.
- Customizable with various fabrics and color combinations.
- Includes an optional zippered security pocket for added functionality.
- Makes a great personalized gift, especially for bridesmaids.
- Step-by-step guidance ensures a professional finish.

## What the video covers

- Christine Lindebak introduces the bow tote, a stylish and practical bag suitable for all sewing skill levels.
- The tote features a slouchy look with long straps that tie in a bow at the shoulder and is fully lined with an optional zippered security pocket.
- Christine shares ideas for color combinations and fabric choices to personalize the bag, including cotton linen, denim, and home decor fabrics.
- The bag can be made as a thoughtful bridesmaids gift with customizable strap and lining colors.
- The tutorial includes step-by-step sewing instructions, starting with installing the security zipper pocket.
- Supplies needed include about 1.25 yards of fabric, an 8-inch zipper, zipper foot, and matching thread.
- Christine encourages creativity with color and fabric scraps to make unique, stylish totes.
- The video emphasizes the bag’s versatility for everyday wear and special occasions.
- Detailed sewing techniques such as marking, pinning, sewing, clipping corners, and pressing are demonstrated.
- The free PDF pattern is available for download to follow along with the project.

Answers

## Questions about this video

What are some key features of the Bow Tote design?

The Bow Tote has a slouchy look with long straps that tie in a bow at the top. It is fully lined, and you have the option to add a zippered security pocket inside.

Is the Bow Tote suitable for beginners?

Yes, the Bow Tote is described as going together really easily, making it a great project for beginners. It's also suitable for experienced sewers.

What are some suggested uses or styling ideas for the Bow Tote?

The Bow Tote can be used to add a pop of color to a simple outfit like jeans and a T-shirt. It's also suggested as a lovely gift, particularly as bridesmaids' gifts, with options for bridal colors.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:04

Speaker A

Hi everyone, welcome to Sewing With Color, where we're going to be making this very chic and very practical bow tote.

00:13

Speaker A

So whether you're new to sewing or you've been sewing a long time, you're going to love making this tote.

00:27

Speaker A

It goes together really easily, so it's a great project for beginners, it also makes lovely gifts, which I'll show you in just a second.

00:36

Speaker A

So before we dive in, I wanted to take a quick second to introduce myself in case we haven't met before.

00:46

Speaker A

I'm Christine, founder of Sewing in the City, I've been sewing my entire life since I was like five years old.

00:54

Speaker A

And my sewing skills actually led me to a 15-year career in the fashion industry.

01:02

Speaker A

And several years ago, I made the big jump from corporate and I started Sewing in the City.

01:10

Speaker A

Where you can find my PDF fashion sewing patterns as well as online courses that show you different sewing techniques.

01:18

Speaker A

So the bow tote is has a nice kind of slouchy look, it has these long straps which tie in a bow at the top.

01:26

Speaker A

So right at your shoulder, there is, it's fully lined and you have the option of adding a zippered security pocket inside.

01:34

Speaker A

So I'm going to walk you through all of that and that's the bow tote.

01:39

Speaker A

So I don't know about you, but I am not necessarily going to be wearing head to toe pink every day.

01:49

Speaker A

Um, but I love this color and so adding this bag to a simple outfit of jeans and a T-shirt.

01:59

Speaker A

Is a great way to incorporate a little bit of color into our wardrobe.

02:05

Speaker A

So I've done it in this hot pink.

02:08

Speaker A

I also have done it in this printed, like a little cheetah print.

02:14

Speaker A

This was actually a duvet cover that I found at IKEA.

02:17

Speaker A

And I just thought it would be such a chic bag.

02:20

Speaker A

I do kind of wish I would have experimented with some color more color into this bag.

02:25

Speaker A

Maybe a different strap color or a different lining color.

02:27

Speaker A

I ended up using white in this one.

02:30

Speaker A

Um, but I think it looks so chic back to color in my wardrobe.

02:36

Speaker A

So with this green shirt, it looks so cool.

02:38

Speaker A

I think it would also be really good with just a like a crisp white button down and jeans or white jeans.

02:43

Speaker A

Um, you can see how these bags are really fun and easy way to put a little bit of style and color into kind of our everyday wear.

02:48

Speaker A

Then this sample.

02:50

Speaker A

I wanted to make just to show how beautiful I think that this bag would be as bridesmaids gifts.

02:57

Speaker A

So the body of the bag I've done in this just really beautiful white linen.

03:03

Speaker A

Um, and then done the straps in a contrasting gray.

03:07

Speaker A

So you could do the straps in your bridal colors with the white linen.

03:12

Speaker A

I think it's such a beautiful gift.

03:14

Speaker A

You could make these for your bridesmaids and add inside maybe some slippers and a dressing gown.

03:20

Speaker A

Or, you know, other things for the survival kit.

03:25

Speaker A

This could be kind of the a gift bag as well as a really practical bag to use.

03:29

Speaker A

Um, while you get ready for the wedding.

03:32

Speaker A

Isn't it just so beautiful?

03:34

Speaker A

Um, and I think that this bag shows the like the color combinations that you can do a little bit better than the others.

03:40

Speaker A

Um, so obviously the gray strap with the white, you could also do a different front and a different back.

03:45

Speaker A

You could do a different color lining inside.

03:47

Speaker A

Um, these straps, there's two straps, so you could do, um, you could do one strap one color and the other strap another color.

03:53

Speaker A

Especially if you're going to be using scraps, it's a great scrap busting project.

03:58

Speaker A

Um, you can really like the sky's the limit with what you can do as far as color combinations.

04:02

Speaker A

So I love color, I love looking at Pinterest for inspiration.

04:05

Speaker A

So let's take a quick look at some of the different color combinations that you could do with your bag.

04:10

Speaker A

So you could do different shades of blue.

04:13

Speaker A

So I love this kind of tonal effect.

04:16

Speaker A

So maybe you do the body of the bag in one blue and then the straps in a lighter shade of blue.

04:21

Speaker A

You could do blues and greens, again, going into that kind of tonal look.

04:26

Speaker A

It's so beautiful.

04:27

Speaker A

What about this houndstooth print with a mint green?

04:30

Speaker A

I think it's such a beautiful combination, especially as we go into fall.

04:34

Speaker A

Then with pink.

04:36

Speaker A

I love pink, you could do pink and gray, you could do pink and rust.

04:41

Speaker A

Pink and red, like Sarah Jessica Parker are all great color combinations.

04:45

Speaker A

Then even gray with a little pop of orange, maybe doing a gray bag with an orange lining.

04:50

Speaker A

I think it would be so lovely.

04:52

Speaker A

And then, of course, lavender and purple, I think would be such lovely bags.

04:57

Speaker A

You could pop yellow, even some green with it.

05:00

Speaker A

I love color combinations that have purple included.

05:03

Speaker A

Okay, so as far as fabric goes.

05:06

Speaker A

I have made most of my totes in a light or medium weight cotton linen.

05:12

Speaker A

Um, you could go as heavy as a denim or other of your heavier weight home deck fabrics.

05:17

Speaker A

I think with a heavier weight fabric, you'll just have a little bit more of a structured bag.

05:23

Speaker A

Whereas the lighter weight cottons are really kind of going to give you that slouchy look.

05:26

Speaker A

So really the sky's the limit and have fun playing with your scraps.

05:31

Speaker A

And putting together different color combinations.

05:33

Speaker A

So for supplies, we're going to need in total about a yard and a quarter of fabric.

05:37

Speaker A

Um, at 45 inch wide.

05:40

Speaker A

You're going to need an 8-inch regular zipper.

05:43

Speaker A

So you'll need a zipper foot for your machine.

05:46

Speaker A

Um, and of course, thread to match.

05:48

Speaker A

You can download the pattern for free using the link somewhere on this page.

05:51

Speaker A

And as far as fabric pieces, you're going to need two of your straps, you're going to need one of your pocket bag.

05:58

Speaker A

It's optional, if you don't want to put the zipper, you don't have to.

06:02

Speaker A

So you would omit the pocket bag.

06:05

Speaker A

But I'm going to walk through doing the security bag.

06:08

Speaker A

Or security zipper pouch.

06:11

Speaker A

You're going to need two of the lining and you're going to need two of the outer bag.

06:15

Speaker A

So in this case, I'm going to be doing them all in one color, but of course, have fun with your color combinations.

06:20

Speaker A

And do exactly as you wish.

06:22

Speaker A

Okay, so now I'm going to take you over to my sewing machine and we're going to walk step by step through assembling our bag.

06:27

Speaker A

So for our very first step, we are going to be working on the security pockets.

06:33

Speaker A

We're going to be putting in the zipper this way.

06:35

Speaker A

So I have one of my lining pieces as well as my pocket bag.

06:40

Speaker A

And using a ruler and in this case, a white chalk, if you have a lighter color, you could use a blue chalk or maybe a water soluble pen.

06:49

Speaker A

And I've just transferred the stitching line from my pattern over to both my pocket bag and my lining on the right side.

06:55

Speaker A

So now what I'm going to do is take the right side of my pocket lining and put it with the right side of my lining.

07:00

Speaker A

And I'm going to do my best to match up these markings.

07:03

Speaker A

There we go.

07:04

Speaker A

And then I will pin this in place.

07:07

Speaker A

And now what we're going to do is just to the sewing machine.

07:10

Speaker A

We're going to sew all around this box.

07:12

Speaker A

Okay, and now as I come to one of the corners of our box here, I'm just going to stop with my needle down, make a pivot.

07:20

Speaker A

And then do the same thing on the other corner, needle down and pivot.

07:24

Speaker A

That gives us a really nice and neat square.

07:27

Speaker A

And I'll just finish sewing this and voila.

07:30

Speaker A

Okay, so now I'm just going to clip these threads.

07:33

Speaker A

And now we have our box that we've sewn right sides together.

07:36

Speaker A

Now, I'm just going to take my scissors and just clip right in the center.

07:40

Speaker A

And at the corners, I'm going to show you what I'm going to do.

07:43

Speaker A

Just clip right into each of the corners.

07:45

Speaker A

Like so.

07:46

Speaker A

Okay, so we are actually going to be turning this inside out.

07:50

Speaker A

And that's going to give us a clean, um, a clean edge for our zipper.

07:54

Speaker A

Oops, I'm still in there.

07:55

Speaker A

Okay.

07:56

Speaker A

I'll take my pins out.

07:57

Speaker A

And now we are going to, we've clipped this not so neatly.

08:02

Speaker A

But, um, I am going to just turn the pocket bag to the wrong side of my lining.

08:07

Speaker A

And voila, we're going to need to press this a bit.

08:10

Speaker A

But this is going to give us the opening where we're going to put our zipper right behind this.

08:15

Speaker A

So I'm going to take this to the iron and give it a really good press.

08:20

Speaker A

I'm going to work out these corners so they're nice and crisp.

08:22

Speaker A

And I'll meet you back here and we'll install our zipper.

08:24

Speaker A

So now you can see I've pressed my pocket bag to the wrong side.

08:28

Speaker A

And we have a nice clean opening here.

08:30

Speaker A

So all I'm going to do is take my zipper, the right side of my zipper is up.

08:34

Speaker A

And I'm just going to place it right under our opening there.

08:37

Speaker A

Um, and I'm going to put the zipper pull right on one end and I'm just lining this up and centering it right in our little opening there.

08:42

Speaker A

Um, and that looks about good.

08:44

Speaker A

So I'm going to place some pins here just to secure it in place.

08:47

Speaker A

And then all we're going to do to attach this zipper, this is probably the easiest zipper we'll do.

08:52

Speaker A

Um, I'm just going to literally top stitch right around our opening.

08:56

Speaker A

And that's going to secure our zipper.

08:58

Speaker A

And give us our little pocket within the bag.

09:01

Speaker A

So I'm going to take this to the machine and we're going to top stitch it down.

09:04

Speaker A

So the very first thing I'm going to do is just change my foot from my regular one to my zipper foot.

09:08

Speaker A

So the zipper foot just allows us to get nice and close into, um, the zipper.

09:12

Speaker A

So we can top stitch it down.

09:14

Speaker A

Um, so I will start probably right here in the center and I'm just going to get as close to the fold here as I can.

09:20

Speaker A

Um, and maybe about an eighth of an inch from the edge.

09:23

Speaker A

And I'm just going to.

09:34

Speaker A

Stitched around.

09:36

Speaker A

And now you can see we have our opening here.

09:38

Speaker A

So the last thing we're going to do is just take our pocket bag and fold it right up.

09:43

Speaker A

Matching the top edges and the side edges.

09:46

Speaker A

And then we're just going to sew all the way around the three sides.

09:48

Speaker A

So the bottom, um, just is folded up.

09:52

Speaker A

I'm going to match all of these edges.

09:54

Speaker A

And that way we will make our pocket bag.

09:56

Speaker A

Okay, so you can see I've sewn around the three edges of our pocket bag there.

10:00

Speaker A

And now if we test this out, you can see we have a fully functional pocket there.

10:04

Speaker A

So this is on our lining piece.

10:06

Speaker A

So now we're going to take both our lining piece as well as our outside bag.

10:12

Speaker A

And we're going to match the pieces up right side together.

10:16

Speaker A

Matching all those raw edges and then what we're going to do is sew both.

10:20

Speaker A

Let's see, so we're going to sew here on the side seam and then here on the lower side of the bag.

10:25

Speaker A

And then also on this side.

10:27

Speaker A

So these, um, the side of our bag with the little insets, that's the bottom.

10:32

Speaker A

So we're going to leave this top fully open.

10:34

Speaker A

So I am going to do the same thing to my outer bag, sew down the sides as well as the lower part.

10:40

Speaker A

And I'm going to use a half inch seam allowance when I sew these.

10:44

Speaker A

And then we're going to meet at the ironing board and press them open.

10:46

Speaker A

Okay, so I've gone ahead and sewn the three sides of both my main, uh, outer bag as well as my lining.

10:51

Speaker A

And so now what I'm going to do is just press all of these seams open.

10:55

Speaker A

Um, I love to do a good press on these just because it's going to make our finished bag all the more crisp and neat.

11:00

Speaker A

So I'm just going to go through and press all of my seams open.

11:03

Speaker A

Okay, so I've gone ahead and pressed all my seams open.

11:07

Speaker A

So we have nice neat seams on the outside.

11:10

Speaker A

And now we're going to keep this right sides in because now we're going to do the fun part.

11:14

Speaker A

And give our bag some shape.

11:16

Speaker A

So I'm just taking one arm inside and matching up the side seam with the bottom seam.

11:22

Speaker A

So just taking this little square and making it into, um, the corner of our bag.

11:27

Speaker A

So I've just matched up my seams.

11:29

Speaker A

Again, this bag is really forgiving, so if your seams, um, you know, are not quite perfect.

11:33

Speaker A

Don't even worry.

11:34

Speaker A

This bag is really forgiving.

11:36

Speaker A

So I'm just going to match up those seams there.

11:38

Speaker A

And I'll do the same thing on the other side.

11:40

Speaker A

Just match up our seams there.

11:42

Speaker A

Right in the center.

11:43

Speaker A

And then, let's see.

11:44

Speaker A

It looks good.

11:45

Speaker A

All right.

11:46

Speaker A

And give it a pin.

11:47

Speaker A

I'm going to do the same thing to the lining, um, and get these pinned and ready.

11:53

Speaker A

And then we're going to sew all four corners.

11:55

Speaker A

Using a half inch seam allowance.

11:57

Speaker A

Okay, so the most important part here is we're going to start and stop with a good back stitch.

12:00

Speaker A

Make sure the seam is nice and strong.

12:03

Speaker A

And I'll end here right off the edge with a back stitch.

12:06

Speaker A

And I'll keep doing that to my other three corners.

12:08

Speaker A

Okay, so I've turned my lining right sides out.

12:12

Speaker A

You can see now our bags are, our lining and our outer bags are starting to have a little bit of shape.

12:16

Speaker A

So I've gone ahead and turned my lining piece right side out.

12:20

Speaker A

I've left my outer bag still right sides in because now what we're going to do is match right sides together.

12:25

Speaker A

And we're going to sew our outer bag to our lining along the top here.

12:28

Speaker A

So right sides together, I'm just going to take my lining piece and slide it right inside my outer bag.

12:33

Speaker A

And first I'm going to start with matching up my side seams.

12:37

Speaker A

So I'll match those.

12:39

Speaker A

And then.

12:40

Speaker A

Uh, just pin these.

12:41

Speaker A

And now if you want, you can go ahead and add a couple more pins throughout the top.

12:45

Speaker A

Just to hold it nice and secure.

12:47

Speaker A

So when we sew this top seam, we're going to actually leave an opening about three or four inches on this top seam.

12:53

Speaker A

Which will allow us to turn the bag inside out.

12:55

Speaker A

Okay, so when I start sewing, I'm going to start with a good back stitch here.

12:59

Speaker A

Just to secure the seam.

13:01

Speaker A

And I'm just going to sew half of an inch all the way around the top of the bag.

13:04

Speaker A

Okay, and now as I come close to where I started sewing here.

13:09

Speaker A

I'm going to leave about four inches.

13:12

Speaker A

Um, so I'm going to back stitch and just leave a nice opening here.

13:15

Speaker A

And that's what we're going to use to turn the bag right side out.

Topics: bow tote sewing tutorial Christine Lindebak Sewing in the City DIY tote bag beginner sewing project free sewing pattern zippered pocket fabric color combinations bridesmaids gift idea


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