Planner Tote – totally not clothes! IPM Week 2

Hi internet!

For week two of Indie Pattern Month I decided to sew up the Oslo Craft Bag from Sew Sweetness – I’ve loved her patterns for a while, and the Oslo is exactly what I was have been looking for in a planner tote. An added bonus is that it is free when you subscribe to her newsletter. I wanted something big enough that would carry my planner, my sticker books of two different sizes, scissors, pens, and also have space for A4 sheets of print-and-cut stickers. A big ask! But this tote delivers everything I wanted.

I used stashed fabrics, which I can’t 100% remember what they were intended to be when I purchased them, but they work great together for this tote.

Construction took a bit out of me, as I have never worked with foam interfacing before! This is actually a great project to learn to use it with, as there are just five pieces that need it – the long sides, short sides, and the base of the outer bag. I used Pellon Flex foam, and you can bet that next time I get a coupon for Spotlight I’ll be stocking up – this stuff is great! The inner lining and pocket pieces are all made with medium weight fusible interfacing – I used Birch.

I ended up using buttons for the side pockets, rather than snaps as I don’t own a snap setter – yet!

I opted not to use the rectangle rings on the straps because a) I like the look without them and b) because Spotlight didn’t have any when I went!

The big back pocket is perfect for A4 print outs, just as I had hoped.

The inside of the bag has two pockets, as well as a divider – this thing is huge on the inside too! If you omitted the divider you could fit things up to 14″ or so long, which is a really great size.

And here it is all full of my planner supplies – and it still has acres of room for more!

You can see that in the pocket with my actual planner I could easily fit at least another whole planner in that side, perfect.

Overall, this pattern is fantastic. Because it is mainly constructed from rectangles of various sizes there is only one piece of paper needed to print the pattern, and the rest are listed as dimensions to cut out. I drew out the other pieces out on some A3 paper I had handy, as I know I will be making this again! I think my mother might be quite hopeful of one, as she was cooing over it rather a lot when she came to visit – it would make a fantastic project bag for knitting. I’m also thinking about making one for a friend who is expecting, it would be a good nappy bag too!

An extra that this pattern has which I think is just fantastic is that there is a sew along video which was brilliant. That is alongside picture based instructions – it made all the steps so easy!

If you’re in the market for a tote for any reason at all that I can think of, this pattern should definitely be on your radar!