NOT a tea towel tote

I found the cutest tea towel totes on one of my new favorite blogish things. It used these kmart Martha Stewart towels with the names of various fruits in different languages. They were adorable and would make great grocery totes. Alas, to my great disappointment, they don't exist anymore.

A kind reader of this blog suggested a market bag on http://www.filminthefridge.com/2008/08/28/to-market-to-market-a-market-bag-tutorial/. This turned out to be exactly what I was looking for, but the dimensions were a bit smaller then I had invisioned. http://www.filminthefridge.com/2009/02/28/getting-ready-for-summer-a-beach-bag-tutorial/
This beach bag tutorial uses tea towels, but I simply cut the fabric I had purchased to the dimensions of the towels.













Cat does not look impressed.














Learning to cut with my new ruler. Don't really know if I'm doing it right.














This is fuseable interfacing to provide a little structure for the bottom of the bag. I believe I purchased the wrong kind. This is double sided and I think I only needed single sided. The solution was to just sew the interfacing in, instead of ironing it on.














Interfacing sewn into the bottom of the inside layer of the bag.














Here's the critical error. Each main body piece should have been cut to 22". Somehow, the outside layer was cut to 21", which left a 1" overlap. How to correct? I think i'll finish the bag by folding the inside layer over the outside and topstitch in place. Somehow I have to get the straps in...