DIY Weekender Tote

Suitcases are great but sometimes all you need is a big weekender tote. Here's a super easy tutorial for creating your own from a vintage blanket. We used real leather for our straps but you could use faux or thrifted belts instead! Have fun customizing your own weekender tote.1. Supplies: Thrifted blanket or rug, yarn (we used bright yarns c/o Premier Yarns), leather, scissors, needle, large buttons. 2. Begin by cutting out the base and sides of your bag. You can make the bag whatever size works for you best. Our measurements were a 24×16 in. base and the sides pieces were 6 1/2 in. wide and then 24 inches all along the edge of the side. 3. Next, cut out a strip of leather for the handles. The strip should be 4x the length of your bag which made ours 96 inches. This is a very long strip but you can definitely sew strips together so you won't have to purchase as much leather. Once you've cut out the leather, sew it all together, making one big hoop. 4. Next, begin sewing the leather onto the bag with the yarn. We made big, messy stitches with different colored yarn all the way around. 5. Once you've finishing sewing on the leather it will look like so. Make sure the straps have an even length on both sides. 6. Then, begin sewing on the sides of the bag. 7. After you've sewn on the sides, stitch on three buttons to the front. 8. Lastly, stitch along the edge to secure it from fraying. (We only had to stitch one side of the top hem because we used the edge of the blanket for one side). As you're stitching the top hem, add loops of yarn symmetrical to the buttons on the other side. This will be the latch to close the bag shut.Stuff your bag with a summer dress and a few esstentials and take a weekend trip somwhere this month! xo. emma and elsie