Intro to Sewing: Tote Bag
Come sew a tote bag with Azadi Folk School and your instructor, Zoe! We will be using the Orton Bag pattern from Merchant and Mills. In this class, you’ll leave with a tote bag you’ve made yourself, with plenty of room for everything you need to carry this fall.
Class Difficulty: This is a very easy pattern, and so this class is great for all levels, but especially beginners. We will teach how to thread your machine and do straight stitch, back stitch, and zig-zag stitches for stabilizing frayed seams. If you have no experience with a machine, that’s ok, we’ll teach you and you’ll get the hang of it!
Class Fee: The cost of instruction and materials for this class is $75. This includes use of sewing machines, fusible interfacing, thread, fabric scissors, and all our other tools, as well as a large formatted printed pattern.
This is a bring your own fabric workshop!
Fabric Requirements:
Oilskin, Dry Oilskin, Linen, Mid-Heavy weight Cottons, Mid weight Denim (8-14oz).
Get 1.5 yards of fabric for the outer layer and one yard of fabric for the lining.
For those who want to bring some of their own fabric, if you have any questions about how much fabric or what kind of fabric to get, email info@azadifolkschool.com and we will walk you through it!
What to Bring:
(OPTIONAL) Sewing machine with basic accessories (foot pedal, power cord, bobbin, etc. We will have class machines for you, but If you have one at home you’d like to practice on, it would be best to bring that one so we can help you get to know your own machine!
Fabric: 2.5 yards total, 1.5 for the outer layer and one for the lining.
(OPTIONAL) Coordinating Thread
About Your Instructor
Zoe is a teaching artist and curator engaging with Caribbean folklore stories. Her video artwork often takes an interest in the transformation of objects over time; whether reflected in the decay of family VHS tapes or the erosion of slave ship wreckage.
Zoe is a Diaspora Solidarity Lab Fellow, where she co-curated the current exhibition, Laas Absan Peldía: Caribbean Cinema Cultures at the MSU Broad Museum. She is a Fulbright U.S. Student Alumni affiliated with the University of the West Indies Department of Creative and Festival Arts.