These days life is fast. Between band, swimming, orchestra, and writing books, and all other things (I’m stopping with that because I’m getting tired just by writing it) there hasn’t been much time for about anything other than a fast craft here a fast craft there, spend time with family and then do it all over again. So this is right up my alley on fast quick get it done and off the to do list and we get to give our teachers (who deserve a freaking award and chocolate cake to go with said award) a nice home made gift that literally took me like less than 5 minutes to make (the tote bag, the zipper bag only took like 20 because I can make it in my sleep because I make them all the time)

So here’s how to make a super simple tote that will take less than 5 minutes to make. I’ve seen bags like this done with embroidery floss and those are super cute! But takes more time than i have…sooooo enter our super fast version:

materials needed:

 -Bag from Walmart ($2.96) or Joanns has them as well and you can buy a 3 pack on Amazon if you have multiple teachers you want to make bags for.

-FABRIC PENS from joann’s are like $6 or on  Amazon  (wow, those are priced more than joann’s! Go to Joann’s people)

-Ruler, washable pen or pencil

On the bag I went off the outside part of the handle and drew a red line down. (or you can make dashes like it was done on the header picture)

Next I marked with the blue pen every 2″ and then proceeded to draw line the dashed line with my ruler as my guide.

-Next with the washable pen (or pencil) I lightly wrote the name in cursive so I could make sure I liked the placement if I didn’t then I could erase the pen with lightly damping the fabric.

*note: the fabric pen will run if you wet the fabric right after you draw on the canvas. Let the marker air dry and let it set before you try to remove the erasable marker. And when you do just lightly dab.

-Lastly draw on top of your temporary written name.

DONE!!!!

Have a little bit of time? You can make a fun little extra by using my Color block zipper pouch pattern and embellishing it a little!

Buy the Color block Zipper Pouch here

-Make the zipper pouch just like the instructions in the pattern, I used Moda’s ruler fabric. (I believe the fabric is called potluck by Sandy Klop. 🙂 

-Measure 2″ from the left side, and draw a dashed line in red, then measure down every 1″ and make a marking with the blue marker. This will be your guide for the blue dashed lines. 

-Mark just like you did on the canvas bag the name of the teacher. 

-Drawn on top of temporary marked name. 

Totally awesome gift for your awesome teacher. In no time! 🙂