You Are My Sunshine! -

There’s something about sunflowers that immediately puts me in a good mood. And living in Florida means there is plenty of sunshine to grow big sunflowers! But perhaps you’re not in Florida or perhaps you don’t have sunflowers in your area. Then Jill Finley’s beautiful and bright Sunny Skies fabric collection is just what you need!

With 25 prints in blue, white, yellow, and green this collection will transport you to a field filled with sunflowers swaying in a warm Florida breeze! But once you have the fabric, the hard part is figuring out what to make with it. I decided to make a super cute tote bag to replace my current purse. I found a very cute Basic Tote Pattern on Etsy that was perfect!

I’ve never made any kind of bag before this project. No totes, no purses, nothing! While I was a bit nervous, one to make a bag, I was also nervous because this pattern uses Fusible Fleece, which I had never used before. I decided the risk of ruining this beautiful fabric to try making this tote, was worth it. After taking a deep breath, I dove in!

Let me be the first to say, the “risk” paid off! The tote came out beautifully! And working with fusible fleece wasn’t much different than working with a thicker fabric. I consider myself a “newbie” bag maker but when I say ANYONE can make this tote, I really mean it!

What’s even better is this tote is 95% fat quarter friendly. The only parts of this tote that need to be pieced if you’re using fat quarters, are the two straps. Otherwise, all the parts of this tote can be cut from fat quarters! I highly recommend you get the fat quarter bundle of this collection because trying to select just five prints for this tote is SO HARD!

And because I’m a visual learner, I made a FREE YouTube tutorial on how to put this tote bag together! You’ll need to purchase the pattern to get the measurements for this tote but then feel free to follow along with this helpful video tutorial.