I totes needed a new tote

"Well, ducks", said Sabrina the dress maker's dummy as she made sure her scarf was snugly around her neck, and her bag securely upon her shoulder, "I'm off! Best of luck, au revoir, and remember that if you can't be good, at least be interesting."
"Nooooooo!", came the cry simultaneously from clothes in the wardrobe, threads from the drawer and sewing machines in the bureau. "What will we do without you and your snappy retorts to keep us all in line?"

One poor needle fell into a blind panic, and scraped her way across the floor to fall at Sabrina's feet. "Don't leave us!" she begged, tears welling up in her eye. "I shall be dull, and then pointless without you. No, truly - if I am dull then I am pointless. Don't let this happen to me. Don't gooooooo!"

"Ach, you daft gits", scolded Sabrina with gruff affection. "I'm not actually going anywhere - I'm just pretending since I'm all got up in this here knitted cowl and tote bag combination. But I tell you, I may just consider taking my mannequin services elsewhere if Jorth doesn't put that knitting aside and start clothing me in new sewn creations again. Knitting is all very well and good, but it doesn't keep this dummy sufficiently warm at night!"
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I hate green bags. You know the ones that everybody and his dog carries dutifully to the supermarket these days? Yes, those, the ugly ubiquitous green things. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not anti-bring-your-own-bag at all. As a non-driver, I am a master at hauling, toting, shouldering, lugging my groceries home in a reusable bag. And I think it's marvellous that for every bag brought from home, that's one less plastic bag used. But why, oh why do the green bags have to be so darn fugly? And stinky, if anything ever gets spilt or leaks in them. Urgh! Have you ever tried to wash one? I have, and they start shredding and going all weirdly lumpy in odd places yet also become threadbare. Quite an achievement!

So the other day I decreed No more! I can't take those hideous bags any longer. Bracing myself, I delved into my stash (cue the Stashbusters! soundtrack - kinda like the Ghostbusters one, but with better, more embarrassing dance moves) and found this heavy weight Japanese cotton. Just the thing, I thought, and promptly wasted no more time in devising a bag pattern and then cutting it out. I lined it with calico, and had the whole thing sewn up in less than an hour. Hooray!

So now, even though I may be lugging home litres of milk, heavy packets of lentils, kilos of flour, and am sweaty and disheveled from the effort, at least I'll be lugging it home in one stylish tote.

Let me know if you want the recipe, and I'll write it out for ya.
Must go - I have a Ghostbusters theme song to hum mindlessly for the rest of the day. Catchya!