{DIY: Canvas Tote w/ Leather Straps}

One thing about New York is that you have to literally schlep everything around with you because you never know what the day will bring. In addition to my purse, I usually have some sort of tote with me to carry either an extra pair of shoes, a bottle of water, work out clothes, or I have it because I know I need to stop by the grocery store on the way home. 

Over the weekend I decided to take a few of my plain canvas totes and a couple of some really old belts and combine them together to make a more sturdy (and stylish) bag. Below is everything you need to do this on your own!

Materials Needed:

Canvas Tote Bag

Belt

Seam ripper

Leather hole punch (if you don't have one of these, buy one. It's so worth the 10 bucks)

Extra large needle

Heavy string or twine

Sharpie or dark pen

Directions:

1. Take the seam ripper and start to remove the original straps off of the tote bag

2. Once you pull away a few strings, you will notice that its very easy to simply pull the strap off

3. Cut your belt in half so that you have 2 even straps. Note: When I cut the belt in half (not shown below), I traced the curve of the belt on the ends of all straps. I then cut the leather so that all sides had the same curve when I attached it to the tote. This was my preference - you can simply cut a straight line, or any design of your choice.

4. Take your Sharpie and mark on the belt where you would like your holes punched

5. Using your leather hole punch (I set mine to the smallest hole) start punching your holes

6. Next take your string and thread your need, making a knot at the end 

7. Start to sew the belt to the tote (I decided to use a cross pattern) and repeat on all four sides 

8. You're done!

It's truly that easy - it total it took me about 45 minutes, start to finish. I will be giving away one of these totes very soon - so make sure that you check back often!

Have a good one!