DIY Canvas Tote Bag Redo! Simple Makeover for an Ugly Bag

A great tote bag can take you anywhere – the library, grocery store, work, school. The list is endless.  That’s why personalizing tote bags is a great project to take on. Rather than make a tote bag from scratch, use what you have to create a fun and functional DIY Tote Bag.  If you’ve followed this blog for awhile than you know I love pre-made canvas tote bags that you can buy at the craft store. One time I used pencil stencils to make a DIY tote bag in the shape of a heart and the other time I use celery to make rose prints all over a canvas tote bag.  Today though I want to makeover this ugly promotional tote that I got at an event. Usually bags like these might get tossed into the grocery bag bin or donated to a thrift store but this bag was a great quality bag and I wanted to keep it.  So what do you do when you have a canvas tote bag that you love but you just hate one part of it? You get out your scissors and go to work.

Here’s how I did this DIY Tote Bag Redo:

Step one was identifying what I didn’t like. I love the entire bag. It was made of very thick canvas and the seams were so strong.  But I didn’t like the logos on the bag.  So what could I do? Well I quickly came up with the plan to simply cover that one area of the bag.  The logos were a dark color and I knew I only wanted to do one layer of fabric so I chose a large busy print. Even if the logo barely peeked through, no one would ever be able to identify it.  Once I figured out exactly where I wanted the fabric to lay, I scored where I needed to cut the fabric using sharp scissors.  If you’re trying to redo a similar tote, look to cover panels that have a clean starting and stopping point. This tote has the blue lines from the handles and the bottom blue panel. If your tote doesn’t have lines, use ribbon to make your own border around the fabric you’re using or cut extremely clean lines and seal the edges to keep them from fraying. I used fabric glue to liberally cover the panel where the logos were. This is all I did. I didn’t sew anything down.  Now I know that this bag won’t be washed that much because I plan to use it for park days or library trips. If you want to use this in a way that would mean it needs to be washed a lot, use heavy duty fabric glue!  If you want to use this method, make sure you have a solid line of glue around all outside edges of the area you fabric will go in and some glue on the inside of that area as well.  I put the fabric into place and smoothed it down as best as I could and then I pushed the edges of the fabric under the blue panels.  If your tote bag doesn’t have raised panels of fabric, use ribbon or other trim around the edges.  Any frayed edges or lose threads were trimmed and then it was done.    That was it. I’m not joking. Once the fabric dried it looked like this: Now that’s the perfect DIY tote bag for a day at the beach or to take to the playground with kids.  Before you give something away that is well made, consider how you can transform it into something that you would use. Or even if you’re still wanting to give it away, consider making it over first. A cute bag has more chances of being bought at the thrift store and not eventually making it’s way to the landfill. If you love this idea, save it to Pinterest.