Out to Lunch Bags and Market Tote Free Pattern and Tutorial

Despite the fact that I really don't need one more bag I couldn't help buying a pattern at Huckleberry's in Courtenay last Saturday.  I will bring it on Tuesday in case anyone wants to have a look and/or borrow it.  It's called the Out to Lunch Bag and is a ByAnnie.com bag so has very comprehensive instructions.  There were two on display in the shop and I could see they would work as a purse or small travel bag so I made a big splurge.  Here is the bag that I bought:

Lots of thought went into the design of these bags which include some hidden hardware to add a shoulder strap which is a must for me.  Here is a video showing
 all the features of this bag.

ByAnnie.com bags are not so easy to make and often require specific products to achieve the best results.  The instructions are very comprehensive and run to many pages.  This will be my first but I am looking forward to this project.

But as luck would have it, I just had a look through my Pinterest feed and saw there was a link for 21 Free Tote Bag Patterns.  There were some really nice free bag patterns there and this one particularly caught my eye:

It's not really evident in the photo but the outer pockets on these bags are curved up towards the center and the piping is really nice, too.  There is also a pocket on the inside.  I think I might have to make one of these too.  Despite being a free pattern it comes with a very detailed photo tutorial which is available here.  Fair warning, though--there are lots of ads interspersed with the instructions.  And if you really want to see the other 20 free bag patterns, you can find that link here.

Christmas is only months away and bags are a good hand made gift alternative to a quilt.