Fashion Hacking: Avon Crusade Tote by Marimekko

I KNOW YOU WANT TO OWN THIS BAG. I got all glittery girly sparkle eyes when I saw it too. I don't even remember ordering it really, it was all just a blur of giggles and stories of how we met and how everyone else in the room just disappeared when we locked eyes...
This lovely is the Crusade Tote from AVON and its part of the Avon breast Cancer Crusade campaign. 100% of the net profits are donated to breast cancer research and patient care.
Style be damned, don't we all love doin good deeds? OH BUT LOOK AGAIN AT THE PICTURE! It's chic and philanthropic! AND ONLY TEN DOLLARS?!?!? Seriously like, what more could a stylish girl who wants to save the world ask for?

WELL...
This is what the Avon lady dropped off a short week later:

WTF?!?!?

Upon inspection I yelled out in my most Renaissance festival sounding accent, "This be not my beloved Crusade Tote! Nay, I say, this crumply heathen be an imposter swathed in the gloriousness that is Marimekko!"
Yes, well, at some point the voice of better sense and character dropped a, "For $10.00 what were you expecting?" bomb and an equally stinging, "This is for charity biatch. deal wit it."

Damn you voice of better sense and character and your righteous, sassy in-your-face-ness.

But because the voice is usually right and it is for charity and it was only $10, I couldn't give up on the tote. I figured it just needed some reconstructive surgery... of The Swan proportions...
WHICH BRINGS ME TO MY 1ST FASHION HACK EVA!!!!
Dunn dun duunnnn Dun dun dunn dun!!<- dramatic Fashion Hack entrance music

SAVING THE CRUSADE TOTE

I wanted my tote to be used as a knitting bag for travel, so it was important to me that it be soft but still rigid enough to stand up on its own, so all my expensive wooly shizz wouldn't end up dirty expensive wooly shizz. My plan was to add a layer of heavy interlining between the fabric and lining to give the bag more structure, and also to keep it from looking like an extra on Golden Girls.
First I checked out the insides. All handbags have an internal turning seam, usually at the lining's bottom seam. This bag was no different.

I opened up the turning seam with a seam ripper, turned the bag inside out and took measurements of the width (side seam to side seam) and height (from opening edge to fold for bottom). I didn't cover the bag's bottom because there was already a thick pad there and I really wanted it to be able to stand on its own (again due to fear of owning dirty shizz). Having the interlining's end at the edge where the bag sits gave the body extra stability.

I purchased the 2nd heaviest fusible available at Joann's and some hot pink thread. I cut out the front and back pieces using a rotary tool (so much faster and easier and cooler than scissors).
I undid the edgestitching along the top edge, scooted my fusible up to the bag's opening edge, fused it to the body and resewed the edgestitching (catching the fusible so it would stay in place even if the glue decided to die at some point in the future).
I turned the body right side out again-- which took patience and finessing since the body was more rigid, and resewed the lining turning seam.

After steam pressing the outside body and handles...

VOILÀ!

The bag was the perfectly perfect vision I had envisioned!!! I use it all the time now and it works perfectly for my needs!
SO very great when projects like this work out. Now I can lord over everyone with my charitable goody-goodyness with a fabulous looking bag.

So in conclusion, please order this bag from AVON! Haha, ok ok, I know this post has been anything but a gleaming testimonial, BUT I don't work for the company or anything, I just think it's a good deal on a tote that donates to a great cause. In a perfect world everyone benefits no?

Again, I truly don't want this post to be a deterrent from buying this product, but actually an example of what can be done to improve it if you are crafty and looking for a rigid tote bag to protect yo shizz.

Step One: Acknowledgement

While clothes may not make the woman, they certainly have a strong effect on her self-confidence - which, I believe, does make the woman.
-Mary Kay Ashe

In simple terms, I love clothes. There is however, one underlying issue that plagues me every time I go shopping, crack open a fashion magazine or even peek into my closet. Fashion doesn't seem to like me. In fact, I would go as far as to say that fashion summarily detests me, and if it could get away with it would pay large sums to build a secret island where people like me could be sent to be forgotten by the rest of society. Yes, fashion hates my kind and it's all because of one small yet significant fact. We are fat.

This past New Years Day was not only a day of realization for me but also the tipping point. I had planned to take full advantage of the New years day sales and skipped out of the house on what I thought would be an adventure in self rediscovery, only to return home empty handed with what was left of my appearance-self-esteem slightly bruised. The plus size sections and shops were tragically scary clones of one another! Irrelevance and mundanity abound. Fields of boring over-sized cotton tees, same old pants, and shiny cheap looking muu-muu like tops. That wrap dress we've seen for three years straight was there, hoping I'd be duped by the new old color. When I thought I'd found some gems, hopes were quickly dashed when I realized some missy racks had encroached into the designated plus section. "Bastards," I thought, "now they want our land...". Anything promising that was to be found was offered in unsophisticated color palettes (honestly, does neon green look good on anyone in real life?), or was nesting doll sized from a missy style (more on nesting doll sizing in a future post) making it unsuitable for any plus size woman's body. But being the eternal optimist, I continued my search, fighting through rack after rack of boring and blah, boring and blah until finally I had to exclaim, "Why are there no cool/flattering/high quality clothes for big girls?! Are there no fat girls in Paris?"


Now, while it should be said that I am working towards weight loss goals; the very popular "lose weight, fatty" reasoning is ridiculous with regards to fashion for two major reasons. First, it implies that fat people are unworthy of things of beauty, quality and value and therefore because of their size are and should be regarded as lesser people, and second, it makes it seem like losing weight is very easy and happens overnight, so there is no reason fatties can't put down the cupcakes, hit the treadmill for an hour and make a shopping trip tonight in time for (insert fun social activity here).

Because healthy weight loss takes time (years even), and I want to look fab NOW, I've decided to take action. I've made a pledge to myself (I refuse to call it a resolution) that I will honor my style and not buy anything that I don't love, or is irrevocably ill fitting. I'm even gonna get ballsy and go a step further in saying that this year, to fill the clothing gaps I will undoubtedly create due to my first non-resolution, I will design and MAKE clothing for myself. Honestly, that last part really isn't as out there as it sounds since I actually am a clothing designer and work in the technical design field for a living... BUT STILL. THIS IS HUGE.

I discussed with friends my decision to cast away the stigmas of fat girl fashion and heard lots of empathetic commiseration and positive feedback. Because of this I decided to blog about my experience. I'm doing this for myself, for them and for all the other style conscious plump ladies out there who share my grievances.
Perhaps together we can start a revolution.