When we were collecting ideas for boy posts a couple months ago, I kept noticing that there were so many great ideas for bags and totes for boys. Girls get a free pass with purses, but why shouldn’t boys have something nice to tote their belongings around in? We don’t usually think about ways to make boy accessories creative, but I think the next group of contributors you’ll see here on Made By Rae will show that you can! So today and tomorrow I’m going to feature a few fantastic bag and tote tutorials for boys so that you can make one for your boy too. If you’ve made a bag or tote for a boy, please put it in the Celebrate the Boy photo pool so we can all enjoy it, and I’ll try to round them all up soon!

First up, Marigold from Hideous, Dreadful, Stinky is here with a tutorial for her Crayon Monster Art Totes. The simple felt tote is just big enough for a coloring book or two, and the monster’s “teeth” are crayons. And if you don’t want to make one for yourself, she’s giving this one away on her blog!

Here’s Marigold:

Hello! My name is Marigold and I have a crafty blog waaay on the other side of the Internet called Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!  In September 2006, my son Huck was born. Less than two years later (oops!), his brother Milo came along. My life became consumed with monster trucks and wrestling and super jumping off of things one shouldn’t be climbing onto the first place. I tried to introduce them to dolls, but Milo would chuck his baby doll head first out of his play stroller and instead load it up with toy cars and plastic dinosaurs and wind-up robots. Despite my crunchiest efforts to avoid stereotypically gender assigning my children, I find myself a mom of boys. Very boyish boys.
Frankly, my personality is better suited to rough-and-tumble dirty faces and scraped up knees than to boring old girly tea parties. But it was a bit disorienting at first, because I’ve always been a crafter who loves lace and glitter and tulle. Now that I’ve been doing it for awhile, though, I find sewing and crafting for my boys immensely satisfying. I love to take a conservative color or a stuffy men’s suiting fabric and juxtapose it with something silly or bright. It pushes me creatively to make things that my boys love to wear, play with and own. And I love being challenged in that way.
Thank you so much, Rae and Dana, for putting together Celebrate the Boy and allowing me to be a part of it!

Marigold also has a brand new etsy shop (open as of February 1) called Stinky Boy where you can buy cute handmade things (including a Crayon Monster Tote or Messenger Bag!) made by Marigold. OR, enter her giveaway today to WIN the tote she made for today’s tutorial:

Be sure to check out Marigold’s blog, where you’ll find lots of other fantastic ideas for sewing for boys:

This entire month of THE BOY is a collaboration between myself and Dana of MADE! Today Dana’s featuring a Monster TOOTH pillow tutorial from The Long Thread. It was a complete accident that these two tutorials landed on the same day, but how perfect, right?! We have a mini-theme!!

Click here to go to MADE