Learning to Sew: Owl Tote: Wild Success!!!

I finally got Husky Helen back from the sewing machine repair shop. $65 later, we're back in business! I kind of didn't realize that sewing could be like this. Ya know, NOT stopping to curse your machine and re-thread every few inches, cutting snarls off the back and pulling the fabric to try and relieve the puckering from the crappy tension.

Left, the ratty stitches pre-repair. Right: silky smooth and no re-threading the machine every five minutes!

The owl tote bag turned out amazingly! 

Pattern: tote from Stitch by Stitch, owl from a photo in that book (pattern not included), zipper insert from this tutorial.  The book was about $20 but I'm using it for at least 4 things, so $5

Fabric: Green main fabric $2.80.  The rest from my stash. Lining from my tack board, butt from the curtains

Notions: zipper and thread $4
Total: $11...unless you count the sewing machine repair, in which case $76
Results: LOVE IT! 

Back of the applique

I have never done so much gratuitous bragging! At work last night I had to make sure *everyone* understood that I had made this. "Look at the zipper!" I crowed, "did you see the zipper? I put that in. Um, did you catch the zipper?  How 'bout that zipper, eh?"

Usually I like to keep a low profile with my DIYs, waiting for someone to ask if I made a thing and then modestly admitting, guilty as charged, no no, it was nothing. But this.  THIS.  This I am truly proud of.

I wasn't actually planning on putting that much into the zipper: lining it with its own fabric and then attaching it to the lining. Really, it only happened because that was the only tutorial I could find for putting a zip in a lined bag. But whoa boy, it's a nice touch.  The buttons I also love: The Hubbs drilled out the middle of the white buttons so the black ones would seat into them, but they still rattle around a bit like the googly eyes of my childhood sock puppets, which I enjoy.

p.s., didja get a look at that zipper???