Organizing Tote Basket {tutorial}

Phew, it's finally finished! This was one of those projects that I never thought I would finish. In all honesty, it is a fairly quick and simple project. Its just like making a basket or a bag, but with adding large pockets on the outside before sewing it all together. This little organizer can be used in so many ways. I just love it! The first one that I made was for my mother in law and she uses it to organize all of her note cards and stationary, see it here. But you can use it anywhere to store anything. Use the same basic design to make a bigger or smaller one. You could even make a round one! I'm hoping that I will be back on my sewing feet again soon because I have plans to make a ton of these! Sorry about the spacing of the pictures and wording. I had a hard time getting everything to line up properly. It still drives me nuts, but I finally had to give in and leave it to be. Hopefully this doesn't make it harder to follow, just let me know.

Organizing Tote Basket Tutorial

(Allow 3-4 hours to complete)

Materials Needed:

* cotton fabric about 1 yard

*fat quarter of flannel fabric or light weight stabilizer

*1/2 yard of terrycloth, fleece or medium weight stabilizer

*70" of bias tape or make some if you have enough fabric.

Cut the following from the cotton fabric: (Make sure you letter each piece of fabric as you cut them out. It will make assembling the organizer much easier.)

A: 6 pieces at 9 1/2" x 7 1/2" (sides and bottom of organizer)

B: 4 pieces at 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" (sides of organizer)

C: 2 pieces at 9 1/2" x 10 1/2" (side pockets)

D: 1 piece at 7 1/2" x 10 1/2" (side pocket with slots)

2 pieces at 17" x 3" (handles)

Cut the following from terrycloth, fleece or medium weight stabilizer:

A: 3 pieces at 9 1/2" x 7 1/2" (sides and bottom)

B: 2 pieces at 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" (sides)

Cut the following from the flannel or lightweight stabilizer:

1 piece at 7 1/2" x 5 1/4" (stabilizer for the pocket with slots)

2 pieces at 9 1/2" x 5 1/4"(stabilizer for the longer pockets)

**Bias tape**

You will need about 70" of bias tape. You can either buy some bias tape or make it yourself. I had plenty of fabric so I made my own bias tape.

For now you will be working with just the following pieces: the bias tape, the 3 pieces of flannel, 2C pieces & 1 D piece.

Fold one C piece in half, wrong sides together with the 9 1/2" x 5 1/4" piece of flannel folded in the middle. Iron flat.

Cut off a 9 1/2" piece of bias tape.

Unfold the bias tape. Place the top edge of the bias tape onto the folded edge of the fabric.

Sew bias tape on. If you are using homemade bias tape, do not sew in the ditch, sew in a little bit. If you are using store bought bias tape line up the shorter side on the top edge and sew in the ditch.

Now fold bias tape up.

And over, then fold edge raw edge under. Sew bias tape as close to the edge as possible.

Here is what your first finished piece will look like.

Repeat with the other C piece and 9 1/2" x 5 1/4" piece of flannel. Once that is finished, repeat the same steps but with the D piece and the 7 1/2" x 5 1/4" piece of flannel. Your three finished pieces should look like this now. These are going to be the pocket pieces on your organizer. Take the D pocket piece that you just made and measure how wide you want your slots to be. You can make them as wide as you want, depending on what you will be using them for. I made my slots 1" apart with one larger slot. Make sure when you are making your marks that you figure in for the 1/2" sew seam on both sides of the pocket.

It's hard to see, but I started by measuring in 1/2" and then measured 1" for my slots. I ended up with 6 slots and one of them was a little larger due to my measurements.

Take a marker and draw your lines down vertically. Gather a B piece of fabric and place the pocket piece on top of the B piece of fabric. Pin in place and sew down the vertical lines to make your slots.

Your pocket piece should look similar to this one now. OK, this is where the lettering of each piece of fabric comes in handy. Gather three pieces of A, one piece of B and the B pocket piece, along with all of the terry cloth or medium weight stabilizer. Lay out all of your pieces like so with the terrycloth or medium weight stabilizer underneath each of the pieces of fabric shown. Pin the 2 pocket pieces C (C pocket pieces are the ones that you just made above with the bias tape) in place on top of the two side A pieces like below. Make sure the bottom of the C pocket pieces are even with the bottoms of the A side pieces.

Now, working with the A pocket piece and the A bottom piece pin right sides together.

Make sure you start a 1/2" in from the edge and end a 1/2" in from the edge. This will make it easier for the sides of the organizer line up evenly when sewing them all together. Just trust me on this one.

Sew top edge.

See? Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and the end a few times as well.

Now attach the other A pocket piece to the other side of the A bottom piece.

Your pieces should look like this now. All the A pieces are connected and the B pieces on the sides.

If you need to straighten up the edges a little bit. You want to make sure everything is kept straight.

Pin the B piece onto the A bottom piece and sew in place.

And repeat with the other B pocket piece that has the slots.

All 4 sides should be sewn in place now. (Sorry guess I forgot to take a picture of all the sides attached.)

Now it is time to sew the sides all together to make a basket. Take any two sides that are beside one another and pin right sides together. Make sure you line them up very straight starting at the bottom edge of the organizer.

Sew edge. Make sure you start and end at the edge, do not start the 1/2" in here. Also make sure you back stitch a few times near the bottom piece. You want it to be strong, since that is going to be the bottom of your organizer.

Repeat with remaining sides by pinning and sewing in place. It does not matter which order you sew them together in.

Now you have the outside of your organizer all finished. Turn right side out.

Now it is time to make the lining of the organizer. You are going to repeat the same steps that you just did in making the outside of the organizer, but this time you are only working with the cotton pieces of fabric and no stabilizer or batting.

Gather the remaining A & B pieces and lay them out like before.

Like before, sew the bottom piece A to a side piece A.

Remember to start and stop sewing 1/2" from the edges.

Now sew together the last A piece to the other side of the A bottom piece.

Now sew the B side pieces on.

All four sides should be sewn onto the the middle (bottom) piece now.

Should look like this now.

Begin by lining up the sides and sewing in place, like you just did with the outside of the organizer. Remember you don't need to sew them together in any particular order.

Now you have the inside of the organizer all finished.

Place the inside of the organizer into the outside of the organizer, wrong sides facing.

Gather the rest of your bias tape. Now you are going to sew the inside and the outside of the organizer together around the top by using the bias tape.

Start by folding one edge of the bias tape in and ironing it flat. You will be working with the folded edge of the bias tape first. Pin the bias tape in place all around the top edge of organizer.

Sew bias tape in place starting at the folded edge and ending at the folded edge. Allow the unfinished edge of the bias tape to overlapp the begining folded edge of the bias tape a little.

See how I covered up the folded edge of the bias tape a little bit?

Fold bias tape up, over and under.

Pin bias tape in place

And sew. Like before, sew as close to the edge as possible.

Now gather the 2 pieces of fabric that are 17" x 3". It is time to make the handles.

Fold right sides together and stitch all around leaving a 2" space in the middle for turning right side out.

Turn right side out and iron flat. Top stitch all around handle.

Sew handles in place where desired.

Attach the handles on by sewing a box to make them stronger. You can see I sewed a little spot at the top of the organizer on the bias tape to keep the handles in place better.

If you want, take and sew the handle together into itself to make them smaller. Measure up about 2" away from edge of bag, fold edges together and stitch.

And that is it! Your finished!

I love this little organizer! Not sure what I will be storing in it yet or if I will even keep it for myself. I just couldn't help but throw my yarn and knitting goodies in there. The colors just looked too good not too!

**Please feel free to use this tutorial for your personal sewing projects. Feel free to use any pictures, I just ask that you link back and give credit where credit is due.**

If you have any questions or comments please contact me, I would be more than happy to help you out. And remember to add your photo's to my flickr group if you make one, I would love to see it!

Happy Sewing!