Tea Time Totebag with Fabric Markers

Hi there! I hope you’re having a relaxing Memorial Day weekend. While it’s a time to pause and give thanks to all of those who served our wonderful country, it’s also the unofficial start of summer. Trips to the beach or the cabin or wherever your family loves to spend some lazy days.

We can always use another totebag to carry stuff, can’t we? I found this bag at the dollar store and had to have it because it was turquoise. But the more I looked at it, the more I saw it as a blank canvas.

I grabbed my fabric markers and a simple pattern and quickly ‘painted’ a Teatime Totebag!

You only need a few supplies –

• Tulip Fabric Markers (available at craft stores and Walmart)
• a paintbrush
• a totebag (this is a shopping bag from the Dollar Store)
• a pattern
• a piece of cardboard to fit inside the tote

While this tutorial is for a totebag you could also use the markers on almost any fabric. Tee shirts are cute too. However, I made this for my own mother who can always use another totebag.

I’ve provided the Hydrangea in a Teacup pattern for you to download. If you’d like, I have other patterns that are free to download too. Most of them would work fine for this project.

After you print your pattern, place it on top of the cardboard and slide it into the totebag. This prevents the markers from seeping to the backside as well as holds the pattern a little more stable.

You could also iron the pattern onto the shiny side of a piece of freezer paper, then iron that to the tote or tee shirt to prevent slipping. However, make sure you do a test for iron safeness on any shopping bags. The one I used above needed a press cloth between it and the iron.

Now all you need to do is outline the pattern with your choice of colors.

You can mix more than one color too.

This was the finished design after outlining with purple, pink, and a few green dots in the center for the hydrangea buds.

Dampen your paintbrush with a little water and go over the marker lines. The more water you use, the more of the markers will blend. The less water, the more defined the lines will be.

You can do a little of both – leave some outlining and blend other parts. There is no right or wrong way to do this.

You can  fill in the pattern completely or leave spaces for the totebag to show thru.

It’s a great kids’ project too. If they’re too young to outline, they would still love to grab a paintbrush and “paint”, wouldn’t they?

If you use the markers on a shirt, they’re washable after drying 24 hours. To be on the safe side, I think I’d heatset them anyway with an iron, although the instructions don’t mention that.

Enjoy what’s left of your weekend! What plans do you have for this summer? Going any place fun? I’ll probably just head up to the cabin when the heat gets to be too much but other than that, I love the idea of a staycation right here are home.

Colleen

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