Tote with magic magnet closure

I promised to talk more about those 241 totes and here they are! I made my own 241 earlier in 2014, and when my cousin and his family visited during the summer both his wife and the two almost grown up daughters showed so much interest in it that it was clear to me what I'd be making as Christmas presents for them. I had bought some home dec weight fabric at Fabrics Galore at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia last spring that was perfect for these, giving them a bit more weight and strength than quilting fabric would have done. I used a cotton/linen mix for the pockets and quilting weight cotton backed with woven interfacing for the side panels.

The first tote got a transport theme, with buses, tires, license plates on the outside, and a great VW Beetle fabric for the lining.

The next one has a collage-like fabric on the outside. I almost kept this one for myself as I loved the fabric so much, especially paired with that lovely Laura Gunn fabric for the lining, but I managed to part with it after all!

The third one is a travelers tote with maps both inside and out. There's no knowing where it would lead you though, seeing as going north from Canada you would end up in Indonesia...

I added pockets on the inside with a strap and a snap hook to fasten your key or mobile phone pocket to. I also added hidden magnets as closure and for future reference - this is what I did:

The magnets are of the flat kind embedded in a square of plastic. I cut a couple of fabric tags a bit wider than the magnets and decided the length by how far down from the opening I wanted the magnets to be. Each magnet piece was stitched to a fabric tag like this.

I then machine basted the tags to the two lining pieces, making sure I put them the right side so they would actually snap together once the bag was turned the right side out.

A piece of interfacing ironed to the tag on the inside of the lining ensured that the tags lie flat inside the lining, and then it was just a matter of stitching the outer bags and the lining together around the edge. I really like this solution - no visible closure, no prongs to stab through the fabric and the bag opening snaps together like magic! For more photos, check out my Flickr album.