Or...all the things I learned not to do while making this tote!  lol.  So as I mentioned, I'm pretty much self taught.  I grew up watching my Grandmothers sew, but never did projects on my own until I was much older.  And until recently, I never used patterns.  I made it up as I went.   lol.  I made a few tank tops in high school just from tracing them onto the fabric, sewing the sides together and hemming everything.   Of course that was also pre-boobies so I didn't need anything as complicated as a dart, lol.  I just totally winged it!
Back in present day tote time... I think to my self one afternoon...Self...how much 
more difficult can it be than making a pillow case?  It can't be that hard!  Well...It IS pretty
 simple, but a few little things would have made it a pretty outstanding
 bag. 
Interfacing for starters, would have solved almost ALL of this bags 
issues.  Really it's the primary reason I felt the bag wasn't so much a 
success as a fizzle, lol.  Neither the body or the bag, or the strap has
 it, and as a result, it just doesn't have the weight of a nice sturdy 
tote.  I also hadn't yet learned to box corners, which would have been a
 nice little feature.  Design wise, I would have also broken up the busy pattern with some solids on the outside.  All in all though, I'm not too critical of the bag as a whole.  I went into it expecting to make mistakes and learn, and I did, so it served it's purpose..  and now you too can learn from my mistakes!!    
It's absolutely functional regardless of it's mildly tragic construction, holds a ridiculous amount of groceries, and the funny looks
 from the clerks when they realize it has classic movie monsters on it is priceless. 
Tee hee!!
One thing I felt I did really well was fussy cut the Frankenstein inner pocket.  I thought it would be funny to have him reaching out of the bag at me every time I looked in!!  lol.  (The fabric BTW is Robert Kaufman, Monster Mash.  I believe it is OOP, but you can still find it on eBay.)
Thanks for reading!  And happy crafting!
 
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