Sorority Totes

I have made sorority tote bags with out sewing them. The trick is to buy a pre-made off white canvas tote bag from Hobby Lobby or another craft store that offers them. I have even found the canvas bags on sale for half price several times, which saves a lot.

I included a picture of a Delta Zeta tote that I painted to show you and example of what you can do.

You know, I always start with a simple drawing on paper for my pattern, in this case a turtle.  When painting on fabric, very often, you can just put the pattern behind the fabric (after going over the lines with a black marker to emphasize them) and you can see the line through the fabric. Unfortunately, canvas is too thick to do this. So to get my turtle pattern onto the bag, I trace my pattern onto a piece of cardboard or card stock and cut it out. This makes a template of the outer lines of the turtle. With a pencil, I lightly trace around the turtle template onto the canvas. That gives me the basic line and then I can free hand the inner lines of the pattern. Getting the pattern penciled onto the canvas is probably the hard part.

Once you have your pattern drawn on the canvas, then you get out your pink and green paint, or go to the store and buy some if you don't have any. I keep a supply of most colors of acrylic paint and I also keep so good quality paint brushes on hand always for projects like this.

I had some nice pink rick rack so I sewed that along the top edge of the bag. There is fabric glue available if you don't sew. Last, I tied a puffy pink bow around the handle of the tote for a nice touch.

(the cardboard DZ patterns shown above are not the right pattern, but I am showing you what I mean by a cardboard template to trace around.)

Sorority Totes are available almost any store that sells sorority merchandise and gifts. I found this Delta Gamma tote bag on eBay selling for $18.99. It is an attractive bag and that is probably a fair price, but a sorority tote is another item that we, here at Sorority Sisters website, think you may want to consider making for yourself or as a gift. After all tote bags are pretty easy to sew.

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Make a Sorority Tote

Sharing some Chi Omega ideas...	Sorority Bags
The quickest way I know to decorate a tote and make it represent a particular sorority is by painting a simple mascot like the owl on this tote and painting the Greek letters (Chi Omega on list tote) in bright color that represents the sorority's colors.

You can buy generic tote bags like this one at any craft store or online. I added the red rick rack by sewing it on my sewing machine. I make a fabric lining for some of the sorority totes that I make.

Other easy gifts to make are sorority pillows, sorority stationary and cards.

 

You can find a lot of great ideas by browsing the forums of Greek Chat.