Introduction: Doodle Homemade Tote Bag With Circuit Playground Express

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This project shows you how to make a tote bag, embroidery doodles and code for a random colour generator to tell you if you're "sad" or "happy".

Supplies

Here is what you will need:

Bag:

fabric- 2 strap pieces measuring 70 by 10 cm

fabric - 2 body pieces measuring 40 by 40 cm

fabric - pocket 8 by 8 cm

20 binder clips

sewing machine

sewing needle

scissors

chalk

pen

ruler

pencil

Outside bag:

CPX & battery pack

USB cord

yellow, dark green, brown, light green, red/or pink , grey embroidery thread (or colours of choice)

Step 1: Measuring Fabric Pieces

  1. Cut out two cardboard pieces, one measuring 70 by 10 cm and the other measuring 40 by 40cm. (why- because the fabric is hard to get and get accurate.)
  2. Place the cardboard pieces on the fabric laid out on the floor and trace them with chalk.
  3. Cut along the chalk lines.

Step 2: Making the Tote Bag

  1. Place binder clips alongside the two body pieces of the bag so that the body pieces sit on top of each other (10 cm apart)
  2. Leave one side of the bag without binder clips so the bag can be a bag ( only sew 3 sides )
  3. Using a sewing machine or by hand sew the body pieces together leaving 1.3cm (.5 inch) of seam allowance

Tip

Make sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of your sewing when using sewing machine.

Step 3: Boxing the Bag

Now onto the hardest step

  1. Stick your hand into the corner of the bag and add binder clips
  2. Get a ruler and line it up with the seam line and adjust till the corner of the bag is 10cm wide(look at the photo)
  3. Using pencil draw along the ruler line
  4. Sew along the pencil line(make sure to go through all the layer of fabric)
  5. Cut off the corner but leave the sewing thread line and cut 1 cm away from it
  6. Do steps 1-5 again for the other corner
  7. fold the bag inside out so you can't see the thread


Step 4: Straps

  1. Fold the side/edge of the strap over into the middle and fold the other side into the middle so that they overlap (shown in photo- NOT TO SCALE).
  2. Add binder clips to hold it in place.
  3. Sew along the middle of the strap making sure to be going through 3 layers of fabric.
  4. Sew the straps to the bag from the inside - by going back and forth till the end of the fabric and back 4-5 times till secure

Step 5: Tidying

  1. Get scissors and cut away all excess thread

Step 6: Embroidery

This section is more creative and can be individualized for whatever design you want to do. My tote bag I added random doodle designs.

Here is how I made flowers.

  1. Draw a flower with one circle in middle and 7-9 petals spaced a little apart
  2. Get yellow thread and thread needle
  3. Pull the needle up through the thread in an area where the edge of the petal will be
  4. Stick down the thread on the other edge of the same petal
  5. Keep the loop and pull up the needle through the hoop on the end of the petal to create a circular shape
  6. stick down thread on the outside of the petal to hold it down

Do as many of these flowers as you want or do other ones from the video and remember to add flowers on FRONT AND BACK!

Watch the video for further instructions:

4:10- 5:00

Extra: I also added random leaves, using backstitch and the same technique for the petals

Step 7: Smiley Faces

  1. Use back stitch or stitch of choice to make one happy face with green thread on the top LEFT of the bag
  2. Make a sad face on the top RIGHT side of the bag (same side/face as the happy face)

If confused look at the photo of the final product and the smiley faces.

Step 8: Code!

Now onto the code.

  1. make a new variable and label it "happiness"
  2. then copy gone from the photo


Step 9: CPX and Battery Pack

  1. Stitch CPX to tote bag central between sad and happy face by stitching through the holes
  2. Cut out a piece of fabric 8 by 8 cm
  3. Sew onto the tote bag so that 3 sides are sewn (NOT the top side) - you can fold over the sides so that the thread isn't as visible as shown in the final project
  4. Attach battery pack into CPX
  5. Then plug in CPX to the laptop and connect the code
  6. Then download Code onto a laptop and unplug it from the laptop


EXPLANATION OF CODE: Happiness scale!

When the red right side of CPX lights up on button click it means the person who clicks the CPX is sad

When the green left side of CPX lights up it means their happy.


Step 10: THE END

Now you are done, enjoy your tote bag.

It can be used to carry your groceries or your school books. You can also test your friends and family and see if they're happy or sad!