Keeping up with the Céline trend I have going on this week,
I have an easy tote to share with you inspired by Céline’s fall collection for 2015.

It’s a rather cool bag with a clean silhouette simplistic in design but chic with the minimal inspired detail.
We’ve seen many clutches this season and so it’s nice to see totes in our over populated clutch wear for fall!

With that said, let’s get started!

DIY Céline inspired Tote

Materials:

• Faux Leather,
• Lining (similar), thin cotton textile in the home decor department,
• Thread,
• machine needle for sewing leather,
• and PATTERN.
  As illustrated in the 1 inch diagram/grid below… (Purse, liner, straps, cut out) *Trim 1/4 off the liner top*
  Optional: Base of bag – Card board, 1/4″ foam, or foam board and wrap/cover in Saran Wrap so to not absorb future moisture.
  

Directions (all seams are 1/2 inch wide unless specified):

1. Measure and cut out paper pattern,
   **for contrasting bag add 1/2 inch seam allowance on the “cut on fold line”.
2. Using pattern, cut out fabric.
   • For contrasting bag,  you will have 2 separate outside fabric pieces, sew together the contrasting fabric on  “cut on fold” line.
3. Trim liner 1/4″ off the top of the bag (line c).
4. While bag is folded on the “cut on fold” line, sew the side seams (d) together, top stitch seams to one side with match or contrasting thread.
5. Repeat with lining.
6. Sew base of bag shut at each end (both parts of side f to both parts of side e) and turn bag right side out – base corners should look like the photo below.
   
7. Repeat with lining.
8. Optional. To create a more sturdy base… Take 16″ x 6″ card board and wrap with plastic wrap and insert to the bottom of the bag, hand tack it into place.
9. Insert lining and match side seams together with leather seams.
10. Lightly pin baste liner into place on the inside of the faux leather, liner should be approx 1/4″ away from the edge of the leather at the top of the tote (line c).
11. Fold over leather (line c) to the inside of the purse to hide liner raw edges (also line c) and top stitch shut.
12. With right sides of the both leather fabrics together,
    that’s right, we are attaching the leather square to the outside of your purse,
    attach leather cutouts 1″ inch away from the top and side seam of the bag by pinning in the circle.
    Sew on the circle line, right side together (red dotted line in photo below).
    
    Cut out the inner circle (everything inside the red circle marked with an a green x as seen in the photo below)
    cut as close as you can without snipping or weakening the stitch of the circle,
    and push the square cut-out to the inside of the bag (lining side),
    so that you see a circle on the outside and a circle with a square piece of leather on the inside of the tote.
13. Topstitch square into place with matching or contrasting thread.Now to create the straps:
14. Sew both leather straps on line “a”; right side together.
15. Open and top stitch the seam to one side with match or contrasting thread.
16. Fold the strap on line “b” so that the raw, long edges of your strap are together, fold the long raw edges (not the short) of your strap inside and stitch closed.
17. Fish strap through the holes of your tote and knot to desired strap length.
18. I am not sure how much stuff you put in your bag, however, over time, the knot will pull out from the hole.
    There are a few ideas to prevent this and maybe you have better suggestions, but for a quick fix, secure with heavy duty safety pins,
    or permanently tack straps into place inside the lining of the tote bag.

So there you have it! This was a fun post I was able to whip up in a few hours and I think they will make great gifts this season.
What’s nice is that you can easily change the look and feel of this bag with contrasting fabric and colors (as seen here, here, here).

Hope that makes sense, comment with and concerns and questions so I can fix any mistakes!
I tried to get my husband to read, but it was white noise to the poor guy! love him.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a glamorous day!

Riva xo

Spreading the word one link up party at a time, you can visit the full list: HERE.