Sewing a tote bag for beginners: how to make your own shopper

Sew a shopping bag: With our free pattern Irma, you can easily sew your very own beautiful shopper bag!

At a glance

• You can download the pattern for the shopping bag for free in the materials list
• The bag is sewn from sturdy fabrics, e.g., cotton, linen, canvas, denim, or similar, and finished with bias tape
• For beginners, I recommend reading my article on how to sew with bias tape first

I have been planning a pattern for a beautiful, simple shopping bag with a rounded handle for a long time. Sewing bags is a real passion of mine anyway. Unfortunately, I've recently been distracted by various small projects (like this wash bag tutorial)... ;)

I’m not sure why, but I just love this shape with the internal handle opening so much! That is why I developed a very simple pattern for this type of bag.

Sewing a shopping bag – here’s how

Well, thought and done! Here is our Irma shopping bag, which you can use for many purposes.

The pattern creates a bag that is 36 cm high and 34 cm wide.

You can lengthen the pattern as you like: For the large bag with the monstera leaves, I lengthened the pattern by 30 cm. That makes it about 50 cm high and 34 cm wide.

As an alternative to Style-Vil, you can also use Thermolam or (my secret tip!) ironing board padding^*. It is firmer than Thermolam and keeps the bag in great shape. :)

Note on sewing technique

The bag is not sewn by turning it inside out; instead, it is finished on the inside with bias tape. Bias tape allows you to add an extra accent to the bag, which can highlight the effect of the fabrics used.

Furthermore, the bias tape stabilizes the seams and keeps the bag in shape.

When I sew on bias tape, I always have my anatomical tweezers^* at hand to neatly adjust the bias tape while sewing.

Beautifully sewn bias tape always looks so "polished," I think. It gives even the simplest bag shape such a wonderfully neat look.

And especially with bags, I love the grippy feel of fabric edges finished with bias tape.

A note on the fabrics used

I created the striped Monstera bag out of cotton fabric from idee.creativmarkt. The leaf shapes made of SnapPap and glitter fabric^* were overlapped and topstitched before the actual sewing. For this, you could also use the technique of thread painting.

Suitable fabrics are all non-stretchy materials such as:

• Cotton woven fabric (e.g., chambray or Kokka fabrics)^*
• Linen fabrics^*
• Canvas^*

Upcycling tip: As an interfacing for the bag, you can wonderfully use ironing board padding^*. Every time I re-cover my ironing board, it's time for another Irma... ;)

Feel free to check out my article on 8 secret fabric sources (cheap to free). You can easily recycle fabrics specifically for this bag. This is sustainable and gives a new life to worn-out clothes, duvet covers, tablecloths, etc.

Important accessories for sewing the bag

• Non-stretchy fabrics, e.g., cotton, denim, canvas
• Bag interfacing, e.g., Style-Vil^*
• Alternatively: Thermolam^*
• Rotary cutter^*
• Pins^*
• Marking pen^*
• Scissors^*
• Sewing machine^*
• Download: Irma bag pattern

Tutorial: Sew a shopping bag

Cut out the pattern as follows:

• 1 x from lining fabric
• 1 x from outer fabric
• 1 x from Thermolam (or bag interfacing)

Place the outer fabric and lining fabric together, wrong sides facing; place the interfacing between the two layers.

Stitch all three layers together with a straight stitch within the seam allowance.

Finish the handle opening with bias tape.

Start on the inside.

Let the bias tape overlap a little at the end and sew 1–2 cm over the beginning.

Fold the bias tape to the right side and stitch it down close to the edge with a straight stitch.

Finish the top edges of the bag opening with bias tape as well.

Fold the bag so that the right sides are together.

Pin the sides together flush using fabric clips.

Cut out a 5 x 5 cm square at the bottom fold. This will form the base.

Sew the side edges with a straight stitch within the seam allowance, leaving the corners open.

Finish the side edges with bias tape.

Open the corners and pin them together flush.

Finish the corners with bias tape as well.

Your new bag is finished! :)

You can find a tutorial for the yo-yo flowers here on the blog. In the center, I simply placed a glass bead and hand-sewed the whole thing onto the bag.

Happy simple sewing,

Yours, Sabine

Frequently asked questions at a glance