A tote bag is one of the most useful things you can make, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Turn a homemade bag inside out and you often find fraying seam allowances, a lining that sags, and handles that look like they were attached in a hurry. French seams solve most of that in one go. They enclose every raw edge between two rows of stitching, so the inside of the bag looks as tidy as the outside – and if you choose two fabrics you love, the bag can be turned inside out and worn either way.
This version takes an afternoon, uses two rectangles per fabric, and needs no zip, no interfacing and no overlocker. You will need to be accurate rather than fast, but nothing here is difficult.
What you need
- Half a metre each of two medium-weight fabrics – a canvas or cotton duck for the outside, a quilting cotton or similar weight for the lining
- Matching thread, plus a contrasting thread if you want the topstitching to show
- Fabric scissors or a rotary cutter and mat
- Pins or sewing clips
- A sewing machine with a standard presser foot
- An iron and ironing board – this matters more than any other tool here
- A ruler, tailor's chalk or a marking pen
Cutting the pieces
Cut a paper template before you touch the fabric: a rectangle 40 cm wide and 45 cm tall makes a generous everyday bag. From each fabric, cut two panels that size. From the outside fabric only, cut two handle strips 65 cm long and 10 cm wide.
Check the grain before cutting. If you pull a rectangle on the bias it will stretch out of shape, and a bag cut off-grain will hang crooked forever. Tearing a strip across the width of the fabric is the quickest way to find a true straight edge, then work from that.
Sewing the outside bag with French seams
Place the two outside panels together with wrong sides facing. That feels backwards, and it is the whole point: the first seam is sewn on the outside, then the bag is turned and sewn again to trap the raw edges inside the finished seam.
- Sew down one side edge with a 1 cm seam allowance. Do not press the seam open – press it flat as sewn.
- Trim that seam allowance down to about 5 mm. This step is what stops the finished seam feeling bulky, so take the time to do it neatly.
- Turn the bag so the right sides are facing, with the stitched seam running along the fold. Press the fold firmly.
- Sew again about 6 mm from the fold, enclosing the trimmed edges inside. That is one French seam, complete.
- Repeat on the other side edge, then turn the bag so the wrong sides face again and French seam the bottom edge in the same way.
Press each seam from both sides as you finish it. A seam that looks lumpy now will look worse once the bag is filled and carried.
Making the lining
Sew the lining exactly as you did the outside, with one change: leave a gap of about 10 cm in the middle of one side seam. Sew the first pass and the second pass as normal, but stop and restart either side of the gap so the opening stays unstitched.
That gap is how the bag will be turned right side out at the end. If your lining fabric frays badly, run a narrow zigzag along the two short edges of the opening before you go any further.
Handling the handles
Fold a handle strip in half lengthways with wrong sides together and press. Open it out, fold each long edge in to meet the centre crease, press again, then fold the whole strip in half and press once more. Topstitch close to both long edges. Repeat for the second handle.
Pin the ends of each handle to the right side of the outside bag, about 8 cm in from each side seam, with the raw ends level with the top edge. Make sure the handles are not twisted – lay the bag flat and check both are sitting the same way. Baste them in place within the seam allowance, and add a row of stitching across each handle end for extra strength.
Joining the bag and lining
Turn the outside bag right side out and leave the lining wrong side out. Slip the outside bag inside the lining so the two are right sides together, matching side seams and top edges. The handles should be tucked down between the layers, safely out of the way of the needle.
Pin around the top edge and sew all the way round with a 1 cm seam allowance, backstitching over each handle for security. If the layers feel thick at the side seams, slow down and let the machine feed the fabric rather than pushing it.
Now pull the whole bag through the gap in the lining. The outside fabric will emerge, the lining will follow, and the handles will pop out at the top. Slip stitch the gap closed by hand, then press the top edge so the lining sits just inside the bag.
Finish with a row of topstitching all the way around the top, about 5 mm from the edge. It flattens the seam, strengthens the handles and gives both sides of a reversible bag a clean finish.
A few honest tips
If your machine struggles with the top seam, a walking foot helps, but a standard foot and a slower speed will usually get there. Press every seam before moving on; a bag that has been pressed at each stage looks handmade in the best sense, and one that has not looks homemade in the other sense.
To resize the bag, keep the proportions roughly the same and shorten the handles if you want a hand-carried version – around 40 cm finished is comfortable for carrying, while 65 cm sits on the shoulder.
Make one in a plain canvas with a bright lining, then make a second with the fabrics swapped. The French seams mean there is no wrong side to hide, and a bag you can turn inside out is really two bags for the price of one afternoon.
Photo: Touka_hogimoto / Pixabay
