Nancy Drew Tote Bag

 

Nancy Drew Tote Bag

Look at what I made! :)

 

I was spending time in my mom's cousin's fabric store (Hannah Johnson Fabrics in Duluth, MN) recently, and I spotted this fabric.  It's "Get a Clue with Nancy Drew" by Moda.  All day I tried my best to put this fabric back on the shelf... but it was one of those that once you have it in your hands, you KNOW it has to come home with you!

 

I grew up reading Nancy Drew books... on every road trip I would read 3-5 of them (depending on the length of the trip).  I had quite the collection of them, until I was 16.  I got the chance to redo my bedroom (long overdue), so I tried maybe too hard to get rid of all traces of "little girl" things.  I sold over half of my book stash in a garage sale.  Big mistake!  Not only because I read that some of those book are worth some serious money now days, but also for the nostaligic aspect.

 

I guess this was my way of getting my books back while also paying homage to my childhood in a sophisticated, grown-up fashion... Emphasis on the fashion, because have you seen this thing?! I'm in love.  And to think, I did it all without a pattern.  Just some beautiful fabric and my imagination!

 

 

I used the border fabric of books on a shelf as the tote sides and bottom.  I love the way it turned out!

 

This is the back side of the bag, another panel.  A panel piece contains 6 book covers.  I paired them up, so I had 3 sets of similarly colored/themed covers.

 

 

 Materials used:

- 1 Nancy Drew panel fabric (one panel has 6 images - that's 3 bags!)
- 1" strips of black cotton broadcloth to frame the panel piece
- 1/4 yd. of the blue fabric (I used 2 1/2" strips)
- 1/2 yd. of the border fabric (about 3 - 44" rows of books)
- 1 yard of black duckcloth for lining
- 1 1/2 yds. of black nylon straps