third woven totebag

Although I love the idea of woven strips (I think it looks very sophisticated) I was unhappy with the way this particular bag turned out. However, where I messed up you can succeed :-D



On my first attempt, I cut strips out of quilted plastic that I taped to a piece of cardboard in order to weave them.


Because I wanted a diagonal weave, my strips needed to be arranged diagonally. I trimmed my strips to square off my mat.


I used long pieces of tape along the side to hold the weave together until I could sew it. This could have worked, except that I only gave myself a half inch seam allowance on each side, and the tape showed in the final product.

Even if you give yourself ample seam allowance, I would still instigate a "no tape on the right side" rule!


On my second attempt, I cut two squares that had a inch seam allowance on each side. I left the seam allowance uncut on two sides to stabilize the weaving process without tape (or at least less tape...)

Here's the back of my two squares as I weave them together. I taped strips in place as I finished weaving them.


This form of weaving left me with an uneven square, which just didn't sew neatly.


This is my ideal (untested) diagram for how one would set up the weaving project. Cut on the gray diagonal lines. Hopefully having one square with uncut sections ALL the way around the woven areas will help keep things neat and square.

This was how I measured out my diagonal lines:

1) Lay the ruler so that it passes through one corner and makes an isosceles triangle, then mark off every inch (or other increment of your choosing).

2) Repeat for the other corner

3) Line up the ruler with each pair of marks and mark your lines