Starting January 1, 2012 we can no longer use plastic grocery bags in our hood. We have the option to purchase paper bags or bring our own re-usable. I totally support this movement toward improving our environment but of course I went to the grocery store yesterday and forgot my effing tote bags.
Since my mom loves family pictures and she lives in the no-plastic-bag zone I ordered her a Custom Photo Tote from Zazzle for Christmas. I was a little disappointed when I got it, the photo quality was just okay (I’d recommend a close up of fewer people for this) and the bag was really plain.
Photo tote bag from Zazzle
I still liked the idea of the bag but I wanted to sass it up so I went to Joann’s Fabric store and found tons of cute buttons and these felt flower cutouts. They came in seasonal colors, I picked fall colors because they are my moms favorite and they worked well with the colors in the photo.
Felt flower cutouts
I arranged the felt flowers around the photo before I sewed anything to make sure that I liked the arrangement. I liked the idea of the border being organic in shape so I didn’t try to line things up too perfectly. I don’t have a tricky button sewing machine so I did it by hand while watching HGTV. Here’s how it turned out…
Tote bag with flower border