Reusable totes have gone from purely functional to fashionably fun. This trendy studded and embellished tote comes together in minutes from a refashioned t-shirt (moment of truth: the studs do take some time) and makes a great gift bag once filled with goodies.

  You Will Need:

• T-shirt
• Glue-on studs or rhinestones
• Hot glue
• Leather/vinyl scrap
• Scissors, glue gun, coordinating thread, pins.

  Here’s How: 1. Fold your t-shirt in half vertically so that sleeves and sides align. Cut off sleeves at the shoulder seam and cut the neck from the t-shirt about 2 inches from the neck hole. 2. Pin the bottom of the t-shirt closed. 3. Sew along the bottom seam. 4. If you want to, you can roll the raw edges back towards the inside of your tote and finish the edges with a topstitched seam but as jersey won’t fray, this step is purely optional. 5. Use a glue gun or fabric glue to adhere studs along the side seams of your tote from top to bottom. (Ours required 40 studs per side) 6. Pocket: Cut a double-layered square from the discarded sleeve of your t – keep the sleeve hems intact as the top of your pocket. Cut a small scrap of gold vinyl/leather measuring 2.5 inches high and to the width of your pocket. Hot glue the leather strip over the top hems of your sleeve pocket, sandwiching the two layers inside the fold. 7. Fold left and right pocket sides in by ¼ inch and pin to the bottom corner of the tote. Leave bottom edge raw as we did here or fold under by ¼ inch as well. Topstitch pocket onto tote being careful to sew only through the top layer and not both layers of the tote.

*Use remaining sleeve to make a decorative tassel accessory for your tote! Click here for instructions.

     

*This sewing tutorial was made possible using the Brother NX2000 Laura Ashley sewing & quilting machine.