Hi friends, today we are going to make a simple pieced cat quilt block, times six, and turn it into a fun Halloween themed tote. Bonus you can make it in other fabrics to make a tote for your cat loving friends any time of the year. I’ve made a printable for you to hopefully make the construction process as easy as possible. I’ll also add some photos so between the two we should have all the bases covered. Let’s get sewing!
Supplies:
- PDF printable pattern (DOWNLOAD HERE)
- Fabric A (black) quilters cotton- Fat Quarter
- Fabric B (pumpkins) quilters cotton- Fat Quarter
- Fabric C (tossed gray Halloween print)- Fat Quarter
- Fabric D (Base & lining) medium/heavy weight such as canvas, corduroy, or home dec- ½ yard
- 1.5” wide webbing for handles- (2) 21” pieces
- SpraynBond Fabric Stiffener
- StitchnSew Sew-in Fleece
- SpraynBond Basting Adhesive
All seam allowances are ¼” unless otherwise stated.
Print your pattern. Use your Fabric stiffener when pressing your fabrics before cutting out your pieces for your A and B fabric pieces. Cut measurements can be found on the printable pattern.
Let’s begin by making our half square triangles. Take all of your fabric A and B two-inch squares. Draw a line from one corner to the other on the back of each of your fabric B squares. Next pair those squares up with your 2-inch fabric A square, right sides together. Take to your sewing machine. Using the drawn line as your guide sew a line ¼-inch away from the line to the left of the line and then again to the right on all six sets.
Cut on the drawn line, trim the half square triangles down to 1.5”. If you don’t have a Quilt in a Day ruler and make a lot of half square triangles I highly recommend one. They make squaring up so fast and easy! After trimming each press them all open and then trim the excess ears from the seam allowance and set aside.
Next take your 1.5” fabric B squares and draw a line from corner to corner on the back of each. Place one of the squares in the bottom corner of each of the fabric A 4.4”X3.5” squares. This time take them to your sewing machine and sew directly on the line. Trim the excess (so there is only ¼” seam allowance outside of your sew line) and press open.
Those are the trickier spots. Now follow the diagram on your printed pattern to sew the pieces of the cat blocks together completing all six blocks. Three blocks for the front panel and three for the back. Once the cat blocks are complete, follow the diagram to sew the fabric B sashing strips together between the blocks.
Once your cats are all sewn together move on to your fabric C top and bottom sashings.
Lastly, sew on your fabric D bottom panels. You should now have two completed tote panels. Grab your sew-in interfacing. Cut two 18” squares. I prefer to cut it a little bigger than my panel and then trim it down after quilting. Take your Basting adhesive and spray the wrong side of one of your panels. Then attach the first panel to one of your sew-in interfacing squares. Repeat with the second set. Take to your sewing machine and quilt each panel. I also found some scraps of jumbo rick-rack I thought would liven my bag up that’ll I’ll attach after I’ve quilted my panels.
Trim your panels if needed (they should measure 16”X16”). Cut two 21” strips of webbing for your handles. Turn your main tote panels so they are right sides together making sure your kitty cats are both facing right side up. Pin along both sides and the bottom. In both bottom corners draw a 2-inch square. Repeat with your fabric D lining panels. When pining your lining mark four to five inch opening at the bottom for turning (I do so with horizontal pins). Take to your sewing machine and sew along those three sides. Back stitch when you come to the marked squares on the bottom corners and then continue. Remember to leave the opening for turning.
Next cut out the squares in the bottom corners. Since we back-stitched when sewing the stitches are secure and won’t start opening on us while we square up our boxed corners. Open your corner and meet the two seams together. Pull the two sides out until they lie flat and pin. Sew along that seam. Repeat with all four corners (both on the lining and the main tote).
Perfect, now let’s add our handles. Grab your webbing. Measure in 4.5-inches on both sides. This should make your webbing even with the sashing between the cat heads. If you are using a different width webbing adjust so that you are aligned with the sashing on both sides. My webbing wanted to fray at the ends so I used some double fold bias tape to reinforce it. Nothing worse than a handle ripping out of a finished bag. You want your webbing to overlap the edge of your bag by approximately half an inch. Repeat with the second handle on the opposite side. Tack in place.
Next we need to attach our lining. Turn your main bag right side out. Slide it into your lining. You should now have your lining and main bag right sides together. Pin around the top perimeter starting by lining up the side seams. Take to your sewing machine and sew just around the top edge.
Pull the main bag out through the opening at the bottom of the lining. Sew the opening closed. Push the lining down into the main bag. Press around the top of the bag.
Take to your sewing machine and topstitch around the top perimeter of your tote bag making sure to keep the handles out of the way while doing so. This will help hold down the lining and lock in those handles.
And there you have it! One happy tote ready to be used for trick-or-treating, gifting to your cat loving friend, or kept for yourself because if you are like me you give everything you sew away. If you sew one up and share it on Instagram or Facebook please tag me (Stubbornly Crafty) so I can ooh and ahh. Thanks for sewing along!
