How to Embellish a Tote Bag

Tote bags are incredibly useful, but they can also be incredibly boring. If you embellish a tote bag, you can turn it from ho-hum to fun. The embellishment can be as simple as a single patch or as wild as your imagination and include everything from paint to rhinestones.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Miscellaneous novelties
• Fabric paint
• Needle and thread
• Fabric glue

1. Pick an appropriate tote. The $5,000 designer bag is not the one you’re going to want to stick with embellishments. You may also want to steer clear of leather, wicker or other materials that will not be easy to adorn or may not hold up well. Canvas totes are a good bet, as are cotton and other materials that are friendly for glue, paint and needle and thread.
2. Gather your adornments and what you’ll need to affix them to the tote. If you have an iron on patch, get your iron. Gather brushed or sponges for your fabric paint. Make a pile of your rhinestones and glitter with your fabric-friendly, washable glue.
3. Paint your design. You may want to practice first on a similar type of material, such as cotton or canvas, so you don’t botch up the tote. You can also create a design or choose a photo and have it printed on a tote at your local print shop. Obviously skip this step if you are not intending to paint a design.
4. Arrange your batch of novelties. Place all your novelties in front of you and arrange them in an artful form the way you are going to cover the bag. Leave ample room between embellishments so they don’t overlap or jam into each other. Don’t forget the back of the bag, if you’re doing both sides, and distribute your adornments evenly. You also have the handle for a little extra glitz if you wish. Skip this step if you are adding no novelties.
5. Let dry and remain unused for at least 24 hours so everything you put in place stays in place. Then pack it with tote-able stuff and hit the town in style.

Tips & Warnings

• To better paint on or decorate a tote, you may want to stuff it with crumpled newspaper or something to keep it taut.
• Make sure all your items, whatever they are, are very firmly affixed to the tote bag. This means using triple knots, a strong thread and a heavy-duty glue. Most tote bags get thrown around a lot, so be prepared.
• If you are adorning the handle, make sure you don’t pick adornments with sharp edges or will otherwise poke or dig into your shoulder when you are carrying it.
• The same goes for totes embellished on both sides: make sure the side closest your body is not embellished with things that can stab you.
• Many craft stores sell plain, canvas totes just for the purpose of embellishing them.
• Pick sturdy embellishments, like rocks, stones, patches, studs, rhinestones, heavy wooden beads, plastic baubles and other heavy-duty stuff. Avoid wimpy embellishments that can fall off or break, such as thin beads, glass anything, feathers or fine silk fabrics.