Are we tired of tote bags yet?

This past year I have made three tote bags, two of which I made the mistake of showing to my Mom. I say mistake because she really likes them, but doesn't want to come right out and say, Make me one!  So she just sort of tugs at them. I decided to go ahead and make one for her, in beautiful purples, to match the red hat outfits she and her friends wear.

Here are the fabrics, lovely, aren't they? I am following the tote bag tutorial from the Hooked on Needles Blog by Mary Grace McNamara, and am already running into trouble. Mary Grace used duck fabric, which is pretty stiff. I'm using quilt fabric, which is not. To make my quilt fabrics stiffer, I starch them fairly heavily, which also helps to shrink them. I did not prewash the fabrics as the water in the starch will give me any shrinkage to be had, and I put a "Dry Clean Only" label inside. I find that once a tote bag is washed, it's never the same as when newly made. But to increase the stiffnes, I also want to use somewhat heavy interfacing with all of the fabric pieces, which means I have to line the pockets. This means more fabric. I didn't see any yardage requirements, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I bought one yard of each fabric, and quickly ran out. Another issue is that I want to put in a zippered pouch on the inside of the bag, just as you would see on a purse. Which means more fabric. What I really need is more of the stork fabric, so I'll have to wait until Friday to buy it. ( I can't make it to the shop before closing) Oh, and I ran out of interfacing. And I need two zippers, one for the pouch in the lining and one for the zipper extension of the bag itself. After all, this is one of the major reasons I chose this pattern! I really like being able to zip the bag closed, and I know Mom will, too. So, off to Joann's and the quilt store to purchase more supplies, then I will continue sewing and writing.