Project #2 Tote bag

For February's project I decided to look at unfinished things I have, or in this case, projects I hadn't even  started! Low and behold I didn't have to look long or hard.
I found a pattern for a bag and some fabric that I bought on... brace yourselves, back in September of 2006. That is a little embarrassing. I only know for certain that this is the date because the receipt was still stapled to the fabric.
I'm not much of a sewer, although I do envision myself making slipcovers for my sofa and beautiful curtains for my bedroom, someday. In the meantime, I get easily overwhelmed and confused anytime I pull out patterns and instructions. The lady at Walmart assured me that this was a great pattern to start with and I could do in a couple of hours. Okay...
Move ahead to 2012: I sat in my computer room and pulled out the instructions to what looked to me like a blueprint for building the next space shuttle. There were several styles of bags I could make and I picked the bag with only 3 pieces and 18 steps versus the bag with 12 pieces and 32 steps.
I love bags, pocketbooks, backpacks... pretty much anything designed to carry stuff around. I do love my stuff and like to keep it handy;) I just don't think you can ever have too many bags.
As I was saying, I picked the easiest pattern to start with and read the directions several times because once you cut fabric, there is no putting it back to its original form. The pattern says EZ right on the package so I figured once I read it through I could be done in a couple of hours. Ha! It took me 3 hours just to iron the fabric and cut everything out. Yes, I'm aware that there were only 3 pattern pieces to the bag. I'm sure there was an easier way, but I did manage to get everything cut out. That is how far I got tonight. I hope to have a great picture to post of my pretty bag in the next week or so. I do have until the end of the month. It would be nice to have it done long before that, but I'll plug along and keep in mind that it is better to have something I want to use than to say 'I least I made it', and then proceed to hide it in the darkest corner of my closet. It's like the black hole; everything gets sucked in and nothing ever comes back out. Easy, breezy, right??? Let's hope so...