Remote Tote Sewing Pattern
Designed with air travel in mind, the Remote Tote is the perfect sized everyday carry-all. From commuting to work to weekend adventures, this versatile bag adapts to whatever your day holds. If a bag can make navigating an airport easier, it can simplify everyday life too.
The tote bag features multiple pockets inside and out, strategically placed for maximum efficiency. There’s a dedicated sleeve for your water bottle and a luggage handle strap that allows the bag to slide with little effort onto your rolling suitcase, freeing your hands and shoulders during those long terminal walks. The zipper closure allows all of your contents to stay inside, even after sliding it under the seat in front of you.
Fabric suggestions: For a durable and long-lasting tote bag, choose medium to heavyweight fabrics that can stand up to daily wear and tear (10 oz. or more) ie. canvas, denim, duck cotton twill, etc…
The finished bag dimensions are 18” wide X 13” tall X 5” deep and the straps are 24 1/2” long (strap drop measures 10 1/2”).
Your Bag, Your Way
The design of the Remote Tote allows for adaptability during the sewing process. Throughout the pattern, you'll find opportunities to customize the design to your personal taste, ensuring each bag is uniquely yours. Not all of the bag features are necessary to its function and can be excluded if found to be unneeded. Some sewists have opted to eliminate the luggage handle strap and instead replace it with a second exterior pocket. The quilted straps can be made with self fabric or instead with a 1 1/2" webbing. This tote bag is also an opportune time for color blocking and using up pieces in your scrap bin.
Construction Highlights
Pattern testers for this tote bag sewing pattern consistently remarked on the clever and thoughtful design, specifically in a few key areas that all seemed to be centered around the interior pocket piece. When the straps are attached to the right side of the body, they cover the raw edges of both the exterior pocket and luggage strap—instantly creating organized compartments for the interior pocket. It's like getting two construction steps done in one smooth move.
The final raw edges of the exterior get beautifully finished when the bottom piece is attached, which also closes the bottom opening of the interior pocket at the same time. Another two for one.
Working with Bulky Seams
Our fabric weight recommendation is 10oz and up. Sewing with heavier weight fabrics can create a challenge for some home machines. So, we highlight ways to navigate this reality within many areas of the instructions for the Remote Tote sewing pattern. Our testing group of sewists really put this pattern through the wringer and we were able to identify many key areas where it would be helpful to give guidance for keeping this sewing pattern fun to sew.
Use lighter weight fabrics for interior pieces
As noted earlier in these instructions, the interior pocket and water bottle sleeve pattern pieces can be cut from lighter weight fabric rather than the self fabric to reduce bulk in key areas. This same lighter-weight fabric can be used to cut bias if choosing to finish the side seams by bias binding them. Only 32” of bias is needed for the side seams of this bag. Watch our video on cutting a lot of bias at once, if you like to keep some stocked and ready to go for future sewing projects.
Using lighter weight fabrics for these pieces is mentioned in our instructions and is also labeled on the pattern pieces themselves. We have used the word “lining” to represent this alternative option to the heavier self fabric.
Swap your sewing machine needle for a heavy duty one
You’re only as good as the tools you use. Use a heavy duty sewing machine needle to get through the thickness and all the layers in the seams.
Hammer those seams
Pounding out the bulky seams helps flatten and compress thick fabric layers, making them easier to sew through and creating a neater finished appearance. Place a scrap piece of fabric over the seam, then use a rubber mallet or small hammer on a hard surface to gently pound the seams after pressing. This breaks down the fibers and reduces bulk for smoother stitching.
Grade seam allowances
After stitching the seam, trim each layer of the seam allowance to different lengths, or trim corners diagonally to eliminate excess bulk at intersections.
Use a hump jumper (also called a jean-a-ma-jig)
This little tool will help your machine navigate over thick seam intersections by keeping the presser foot level as you stitch over bulky areas. Watch how it’s used on the Shop Pant waistband in this video!
Ease up on the pedal
When approaching very thick areas, hand-crank the wheel of your machine instead of using the foot pedal to maintain better control and prevent the needle from getting stuck or breaking.
Switch to a walking foot
Many home machines come with this attachment these days! Use this foot in place of the standard machine foot to help feed thick fabric evenly through the machine, preventing puckering and skipped stitches.