Bagomania (A simple, all purpose tote bag) Tutorial

As promised, here I am, back with a tutorial. I am generally not into making bags. But recently while I was shopping with my cousin, she suggested I should try it out. I had been thinking about it for some time now and here is the result. Well, it actually turned out better than I expected. And it’s going with me to school from now on.
Here goes the Recipe:
Step 1
Things you need
1. Heavy fabric like cotton canvas or home décor fabric.
2. Interfacing (I used heavy interfacing for the sides and bottom and a light one for the front and back).
3. Scissors
4. Tape
5. Of course a sewing machine
6. And some pins.

You need to cut:
Two rectangular fabrics measuring 18 inches in width and 14 ½ inches in length. (You could increase or decrease this measurement according to your taste). Picture below.

Two handles which measure 26 inches long and 3 inches wide and 1 base and side strap (both base and side strap are one continuous fabric) which measures about 44 inches long and 6 ½ inches wide. (Pic below).

And interfacing with all the above measurements.
And a lining fabric.

Pin interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric for front, back, side and handles. Like in picture below.

If you want your stitch to be straight you can mark lines with a marker like I did.

Attach lining to all the cut pieces.
Place the interfacing on top of main fabric and the lining and stitch with a ½ inch seam on both sides of the fabric for both the handles. Turn them inside out using turn stitch.
This is how they look once you turn them inside out.

I marked 3 inches on both sides of the straps from the center and stitched up the handle like this (pic below). It makes holding the handles easy.

Join the bag on all sides(something like this pic below).

This is how the bag looks on the inside once all the sides are joined (pic below).

And once you turn in right side out, it looks like this. (pic below).

And stitch the lining same as the bag, and it looks like this (pic below).

I added a slip pocket, to carry my sandwich. For the slip pocket just cut a fabric as per your desired measurements (remember you need to fold it into half, so make sure you take double the length of desired measurement of two pieces separately of the same length. Attach the interfacing to the fabric, leave open to at one end for turning it right side out. Once you are done with this attach the pocket to the centre of one of the sides of the lining bag with the open end down and stitch around the 3 sides. Like this (pic below). I added Velcro on both sides just in case my sandwich does'nt fall off. :)

Well, pocket is completely optional. You can avoid it if you don’t need it.
Now take the main bag and top stitch a scant ¼ th inch seam from the finished edges of bag top, side and lower edges, starting and ending from corners. Like the pic below.

Top stitching around the corners gives a good shape to the bag. You can stitch it up with contrasting color to make it more decorative.
Now slip the main bag into the lining bag and stitch around the top corners. Now your bag looks like this (pic below).

At the top just stitch another stitch with 1/4th inch or ½ inch, just to make the lining stay inside properly. Like the pic below.

And finally the bag looks like this (pic below).

You did it!!

Thanks for being with me while I was making this bag my fellow bloggers. I love to have company while I work. :)

It was great working with you guys. (I never realized making a step by step tutorial would be sooo painful. I really appreciate and thank all of you guys who upload tutorials on your blogs. You guys are just awesome).