Pattern Review for Student Project - Simplicity S9308

This is the bag I made for the class.  Photos of students are not allowed to be published.

Today's pattern review is Simplicity S9308.

I'm kind of working backwards on the student projects for middle school beginner sewing class.  This tote bag project is made the 3rd/4th week of class.  Before we start on this project, the students have had a few lessons: 

• some hand stitching exercise that include various stitches and how to sew on a button
• a hand stitched project
• how to drive the sewing machine, including threading and practicing various stitches
• introduction to appliques and embellishment

This tote bag is a very simple tote bag project.  It has good basic pattern pieces that a sewist could create many different versions with no problem.  An all around great basic pattern for students

Simplicity describes it as:  tote bags in three sizes.  For the class I used the largest size.  And for the most part, the bag did look like the illustration.

In my lesson, the students learned/practiced several things:

• seam allowance
• top stitching
• how to create and sew on an applique
• how to press to achieve a polish look
• how to assemble a project from start to finish

Now for my class, I changed the instructions to have the pocket on the outside instead of on the inside of the bag.  This change was to reinforce the lesson on applique/embellishment.  It also gave the students an opportunity to practice topstitching.  The rest of the instructions were followed as per the guide sheet.  

For the appliques - I created several templates for the student to choose from.  Some are pictured below.

In conclusion, this very basic tote bag is a great beginner project.  It has great bones and possibilities for many different versions of the tote.  I highly recommend it for all level sewists.

Happy Sewing!

C