Nottinghill Tote Bag {a finished Teacher gift!}

It's that time of year again, last minute teacher gifts!  I don't know if the rest of you "crafty" mothers are like me and always seem to wait until the last moment to make a teacher gifts, but this makes three years running that I have done it.  We'll see if I keep my track record all the way through elementary school :) This year Sam and I discussed what type of gift his teacher might like and she apparently uses tote bags to take papers home each night for grading and he decided a new bag would be a good idea.  We went through all of the fabric in my stash and he selected this gorgeous Nottinghill home decor weight fabric by Joel Dewberry.

I originally bought this fabric to make a different type of bag for myself, but since that hasn't happened in the (roughly 1 year) since I bought it...I  figured his teacher would appreciate it more than my sewing room shelf :)

I used Amanda (a/k/a Jedi Craft Girl)'s quilted tote bag tutorial that can be found here as a guide.  Since this is home decor weight fabric, I decided not to quilt it and just used a pretty stiff interfacing for the bag outside and no interfacing with the lining.

This bag is such a great size, roughly 17" wide, 14" tall and 7" deep.  I'd say she should be able to get plenty of papers (and a number of other things) in here for hauling back and forth to school.

I also love the inside pockets that go the entire length of one side.  Plenty of room for pens, stickers, cell phone, etc.  You might also see that I snuck one of my new tags on the inside (left of photo) at the base of the pocket.

It kind of blends right in...

...and the best part is what I put on the back.  Now she will never forget who gave her this bag.  I have had a number of people ask me what was on the back of my quilt labels.  As you can see they are blank and I normally write the year I finished the quilt on the back.

Now that this is finished I am completely in love with the fabric and size and think it would make an awesome pool/beach bag.  Thankfully I still have some fabric left and hopefully enough to make myself one.  It was a super quick finish (especially since I had everything I needed at home and no trip to the store was necessary!)

I hope she likes it.  Are any of you making handmade teacher gifts this year?  If so, I'd love to hear what you made...I can always use new ideas.

Amanda