Looking for a fun way to showcase some of your favorite new fabric finds? How about a fun tote you can carry around!
The Waterfront Park Pleated Tote is a fun sewing craft that uses leather, rivets, interfacing, and of course fabric to make a fabulous finished purse that you will love carrying around! With hidden pockets and a re-purposed belt, you’ll adore the little details this sewing tutorial provides.
Let me show you just how its done…
How to Sew the Waterfront Park Pleated Tote.
Materials
Instructions
And there you have it, a fun tote to sew that you will love to show off to all of your friends! Practice this saying…
Why yes, yes I did make this.
Now smile!
You can find the entire Waterfront Park fabric line by Violet Craft for Michael Miller Fabrics on their website here. Its one of my favorite new releases! Thank you again to Michael Miller Fabrics for providing the Girl’s Night Out Los Angeles Dinner attendees such a fun fabric to work with.
On a side note – I have mentioned time and again about getting a new sewing machine on my Facebook page over the past few months. And after much deliberation, I have finally decided on a Bernina 350 PE. Squeal! Will be picking up my new beauty in just 1 week. Cannot wait! Will be sure to share all of the details on my new machine when the time comes.
Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time…
Happy Sewing!
So creative! I love what you did with the belt, and those colors are gorgeous!
Thanks so much! I kept looking for colored leather, and short of having it imported from China, this was a great (and cheap!) alternative!
That fabric has everything I love! I MUST have it.
That’s the way I felt the second I saw it Alida – LOVE it!
That fabric!!! It is SO gorgeous! Thanks for sharing, I love it!
Thank you so much Heidi!
love that you are always using your hole punch! great job reclaiming the belt.
I picked that baby up in Germany Heather, one of the few items that I kept when we moved back home. After all, a girl can never have too much sewing hardware 🙂
um yes… we need all the deets on the machine! so exciting! (and great job on the bag!)
Thanks so much Palak!
Beautiful bag! I want to make it! And I can’t wait to hear all about your new Bernina!
I am so excited to pick that bad boy up! It will be love at first site 🙂
I have a beat up skinny belt that’s perfect for this! I have to find one of those hole cutters!
Best hole cutter EVER Justine!! You will never go back!
Thanks for the awesome tutorial. The hidden pocket is genius. {Fabric totes are my go-to bags now that plastic bags are a no-no, but I’m forever losing my keys in them.} I haven’t added rivets to any projects for over thirty years, and as much as I like the design feature, I’m a bit nervous about using them again. I have bad memories about the fabric not getting captured under the claws, and the whole thing looking a mess. Do you happen to have a tute on just the rivets?
Sue xo
Great question Sue!! There is a fabulous tutorial on Rivets that my good friend Mandy of Fabric Paper Glue posted a while back – you can find it here – http://www.fabricpaperglue.com/2013/04/rivets-101.html
Hope this helps! I used to be terrified of grommets until I figured out exactly how to get the perfect one. And the same applies for rivets. The trick for me is cutting the right size hole through the FABRIC as well as the leather. The hole needs to be small enough so that you are squeezing the rivet through (not large and gaping). And then it works like a charm!
Very nice! I got some coloured leather from a leather “factory outlet” near me – they sold it by the pound! Yours looks nicer though, the leather I got does not have finished edges.
Ohhhhh – that sounds lovely! I recently picked up a bunch of leather during the Fabric Shopping Weekend in LA, but for this I wanted to use a belt because I knew it would have the perfect finished edges. That….and I had just seen a bunch of them in all different colors at Target that I knew would be perfect. HA
This is soooo fabulous Jess!! I love the fabric combo and those straps are just too awesome. LOVE!!!
Thank you so much Bev!!!
love it! that fabric is gorgeous! 🙂
Thank you so much Caroline! I was just talking about you yesterday…with a well known Fabric Manufacturer. They love you 😉
I totally LOVE this!! Really beautiful. 🙂 and congrats on the new machine.
Ummmm, this is AWESOME! I must make one immediately. Thank you for making something so adorable with my fabric!!! 🙂
love the tote! I’ve been repurposing skinny belts as tote handles for a while now. Funny to see someone else doing the same thing! Good job!
I sew on that exact Bernina and I couldn’t love it more! You will not be disappointed. I love the bag and the fabrics are stunning!
I love the fabrics that you used. Thanks for sharing such a great tutorial!
That exterior pocket is genius! I can see this working on so many other patterns as well. Thanks for the great tutorial!
I made one – you can see it here:
http://runningwithrocket.blogspot.com/2014/02/year-of-rabbit.html
I like the hidden pocket – I added another inside pocket and utilized a recently deceased tote’s hardware – still looking for handles.
Hi I was going to make your purse but I noticed the length says 36″ + 5″. Is that right? the purse doesnt look over 3 feet long to me. PLease let me know so I can resume working on it. Thanks.