Last year I made myself a summer tote. While I loved how it turned out, the leather straps stretched out a bit more than I would’ve liked, and it wasn’t structured enough so it tended to collapse when I had too much stuff in it. I decided to rectify both of those things by making myself a new tote this year. It is almost identical in size as the previous one, but instead of doing box corners, I added side and bottom pieces. Also to give it more structure, the lining and exterior are both duck cloth.

I used a heavier leather for the straps, and lined them with a ribbon to give them a little color. I attached the handles with brass rectangular rings and also used brass rivets.

All pockets were lined with a coral home dec fabric that I found in the remnant bin at Joanns. I left the front pocket open because I like easy access to my phone.

I created a zippered interior pocket on one side of the interior and a organizer on the other.

I did a 2 inch drop zipper for the closure. I attached the ends to the main bag with two rivets on each side. I used a bit of ribbon to make the zipper clasp easier to grab. I’ve been using the bag for about a month and love it so far. It seems that all of my previous troubles have been fixed.