A sprint towards the finish line

Lotta Tote

I first saw this book at Disdressed and then Caroline got a copy and I just loved the look of her tote, my finger was still hovering over the order button at that point and then the tote appeared again here and that was that. I am sure there is no need to add my review to the others out there, Liesl in particular gives a very thorough review. I will just say that the book is beautifully presented and the projects simple but clever and easy to adapt or build upon.

I quickly made up the hat. It was very straightforward and such a handy pattern to have to hand given the rate at which my children lose hats.
I have already messed with the pattern to create a couple of other versions and it was very easy to adjust to child size.
As others have said, I am not sure this book is ideal for complete beginners, the instructions are a little lacking in detail at some points although to be honest this suits me in the same way that I like working from the Japanese pattern books, I think it frees me up to stop panicking about the fussy bits and just get on with it, finding solutions as I go and learning a lot on the job so to speak. Having read Caroline and Wise Craft's accounts I opted to use interfacing, a very stiff sew in interfacing in the bottom of the bag, the same sort I used for the Weekend Bag and a heavyweight iron-on interfacing for the rest of the bag as I anticipate it getting a lot of use. The interfacing also helped with the problem of linen fraying easily at the seams. Afterwards I wished I had used a magnetic closure but I will add button and loop closure as soon as I work out how to do the loop however on the whole I am very pleased with the bag and foresee this tote and I spending a long and happy future together.