I Made This Faux Fur Tote Bag! Here’s How You Can Too!

Okay but I love this faux fur tote bag, and I can’t believe I made it!! I used this bag all the time in the winter season. It was perfect because it would fit so much stuff – toque, mitts, extra sweater, and looked so cute with pretty much any winter outfit! It’s even softer and plusher in person! A lot of the time I catch myself just naturally, automatically daydreaming about all the styles, fabrics, patterns, and details that I will design for clothes and such, I can’t wait till this manifests, seriously!! For now, I live out my fashion designer reality with my sister Gracie who is quite the expert at sewing, and we have sewn and designed all kinds of creations! If you follow me you know she is a queen at making scrunchies, we have also made the most adorable and trendy cosmetic cases, pillows, hoodies, and she is even working on her own bathing suit right now! It’s so much fun to sew, and it’s not as complicated to learn as you might think, it just takes some time and patience! I’m still learning and becoming better and sometimes it’s frustrating af but a good challenge, and hellooooo you can design whatever you want! YES PLEASE! Okay but anyway, I am going to share with you how I made this faux fur tote bag, what I followed and the videos, the sizing and straps. And I don’t know? Maybe this will inspire you to try it out or sew something you have been wanting to for a long time!

How I Made this Faux Fur Tote Bag

I found this left over faux fur and knew right away I wanted to make a winter tote bag with it! You can recycle fabric from faux fur jackets and coats from thrift stores, or your closet or head to your local fabric store to find something you love! It’s always great when you can repurpose, and honestly sometimes these are the best fabrics! You will need a decent amount of fabric for this tote bag so just make sure you have checked your sizing before starting to make sure you have enough. You can always change up the dimensions etc. to fit your style and look! When I follow tutorials and videos, I usually make little adjustments and it never turns out exactly like the demo I’m watching. So just have fun with it, my tote bag was not perfect by any means! It was my first time making an inside lining, and sewing in straps and it turned out better then expected, honestly! Okay, first I will go over what you will need and the sizing I went with for my desired look. This is the video tutorial I followed, so you will be able to follow that as well, and how I personalized mine because I made slight variations! I will go through what I did differently than the video, but the video makes it super easy to understand and follow the basic steps, so make sure you watch this because that’s what I followed!

You will need:

2 x outside body pieces (I used faux fur but any fabric of your choice will do): 18 X 18 INCHES

2 x inside lining pieces (these will be cut the exact same as the outside body pieces- it’s what lines the inside of your bag) 18 X 18 INCHES

2 x strap pieces, the same fabric as your outside body pieces (I didn’t use stabilizer like the video shows, read further) 32 X 6 INCHES

Sizing, Measuring & Cutting

Make sure you have watched the video and have a good idea of the sizing you want to go with. You can totally personalize the size of your bag to match the style you want, the rest of the steps will all be the same. Just make sure your 2 outer pieces are the exact same size as your 2 lining pieces! So you should have 4 pieces of the 18X18 inch squares (2 for your outer and 2 for your inner) as shown in the video! And I’ll go over the strap dimensions here because I did them differently than the tutorial! Because I chose to do faux fur, I couldn’t use the iron on stabilizer, otherwise it would have melted the fur. So what I did instead to make the straps more stabilized on their own was doubled the width to 32 X 7 inches, instead of 32 X 3 inches, so I could fold the straps in twice to add its own thickness! This will make more sense when you get to this step! But feel free to use stabilizer if you have chosen a fabric that won’t melt if you iron it!

Start Sewing your Tote Bag

Once you have your 4 square pieces, and your straps all cut out and sized to your liking, begin following the video! It’s very straight forward and makes it easy to follow! I followed the exact steps in the video and it explains it perfectly! Mine was not perfect by any means, I just did the best I could and it still turned out great!

Sew & Attach the Straps

Okay this is where I was saying I did the straps differently, in the video you will see that she irons on a stabilizer piece to each of her straps. Since I couldn’t use this with mine, you will see that the width of the straps I cut was 7 inches instead of 3, this is because instead of folding it over once like the video shows, I folded it again to add thickness (almost like the strap is stuffed on the inside)! Then I stitched all the way down on both sides to hold this together and add some structure to the straps just like the video! After I folded over both of my straps twice, and sewed down either, I started to sew them onto my outer bag just as the video shows!

Sew in the Lining & Voila

Once your straps are on your outer bag, you’re so close to being done! All thats left is to add in the lining! Make sure you follow this part carefully to make sure you sew everything the right way! It will end up looking like this once you pull it through the seam you left open! Again the video does a great job of showing all these steps!

I added in a little pocket for my lipgloss before I attached the lining to one of the sides! I can never find my lipgloss if it falls to the very bottom of the bag, so I wanted it to be right there for me to grab lol!! This is totally optional I just liked the addition of the little velvet detail! I think it turned out so cute!

I absolutely love my faux fur tote bag even though it’s a little wonky for my first try! It looks so cute in the winter season! I’m so excited for you to try this if you decide to give it a go, and as always if you do let me know in the comments below! East xx