Reef – All the Things Tote

Hi fellow makers, it’s Luci here from Sea Garden Sewing, sharing one of my latest quilty projects that I’ve made with Corrine Wells‘ latest line, Reef! Inspired by coral reefs, this oceanic fabric line is teeming with life and color.

I decided to make the All the Things Tote by Knot and Thread Design for this project. I used the Jade Bubbles for the outside of the tote, with Sky Ocean Floor for the lining. For the outer pockets, I used the Multi Main print, and made the handles and binding with Pink Jellies.

I used Pellon FF77 Flex-Foam instead of ByAnnie’s Soft and Stable, which seemed to be a comparable swap. When quilting with foam, it’s recommended that you size up your needle to a 90/14 or larger. I used my Juki’s Quilt Guide for Even Feed Foot to measure lines 1″ apart without needing to mark lines with a water-soluble or hera marker.

After you quilt all of the components, the next step is to prepare the bag sides and pockets. I chose to have the Multi Main print as the fabric for the pockets for some visual interest (and because the animals are so wonderful!)

Full disclosure- I messed up at the following step. For the wrapped straps, I accidentally attached the straps to the inside (lining) of the tote body, when it should’ve been sewn to the outside. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t make a difference, but this is why my tote looks a little different than the rest. I’ll say it adds character 🙂

It’s a bit finnicky sewing the side panels to the main body panel, but with enough clips you should be able to shimmy the pieces together without too much difficulty. Another mistake on my end- I measured wrong for the main body panel and was short a few inches, so I had to trim the side panels down 2″ to compensate. This just means that my bag is 2″ shorter than it should be.

Once the side panels are sewn to the main body panel, it’s time to sew the bias binding around to cover the raw seams. Clips definitely come in handy for this step, as well as going slowly. I used my Juki Left Compensating Foot for sewing the second side of the binding to the front, which I’ve found very helpful for binding as well as topstitching.

All that said, here are some pictures of the final tote!

I can definitely see myself making another All the Things Tote, especially without the mistakes this time 🙂 If you’d like to follow along with my future quilting projects, you can follow me on Instagram at @SeaGardenSewing.