Light Up Tote Bag

Start with two 18″ x 18″ square pieces of fabric. Lay the pieces on top of each other and cut a 3″ x 3″ square from the bottom corners of each piece. Now measure a 1/2″ border around the bottom, left, and right edges of your stack of fabric.

Sew the bottom, left, and right edges together. Pinch and pull the inner corners of the square that you cut out until the two seams that you made in step 3 line up.

Press the edge down so that it lays flat and measure out a 1/2″ seam allowance. Sew the two edges together so that the seams stay aligned in the center. Repeat steps 4-6 on the other corner of the bag.

Cut a piece of 18″ x 3″ fabric. Draw a 1/2″ border on one of the longer sides and on both of the two shorter sides. Fold the fabric in half hotdog style. Sew along the three border lines that you drew in step 7.

Repeat steps 7-8 so that you have two straps for your bag.

Prepare the LED strip by lightly scraping the positive and ground connections with a craft knife. Tin the LED strip by melting a small amount of solder onto each connection.

Solder a 7″ piece of hookup wire to the positive connection on the LED strip Now solder an 18″ piece of hookup wire to the ground connection.

Test your reed switch to find out which pin is “normally closed”. When attached to a battery and an LED, the LED should be off when a magnet is near the switch. Solder the other end of the 18″ hookup wire to the normally closed pin on the reed switch.

Solder a 5″ piece of hookup wire to the other end of the reed switch. Find the ground wire on your battery clip. It should be black

Solder the ground wire of the battery clip to the 5″ hookup wire that is attached to the reed switch. Complete the circuit by soldering the positive wire on the battery clip to the other end of the wire that you soldered to the positive connection on the LED strip.

Wrap all of the points that you soldered with electric tape. Trim any excess tape.

Glue the edges of three 3″ x 3″ squares together so that they are in a row. You should have these squares left over from step one. Measure and trim 1/2″ from one of the long edges of your glued strip of squares.

Apply hot glue to the edges of the center square. Fold the bottom square over the center square and firmly press it down.

Apply a small amount of glue above the square that you just folded up and then fold the top square down. The top square should slightly overlap the bottom square. Flip the pouch over and cut a small hole into the back of your pouch. It should be near the top edge of your pouch.

Cut and attach a small tab of fabric to the top of the back of the pouch.

Flip the bag inside out and measure a 2″ hem along the opening of the bag.Apply hot glue to the side seam and fold the hem down.

Repeat step 29 on the other side of the bag. Find the center point of the hem and mark it. Also mark the center point of your LED strip.

Center and line the LED strip along the bottom edge of the hem and mark where the LED strip’s end is. Make a small cut where you marked the end of the strip and feed the strip through the hole so that its wires are beneath the hem.

Remove the adhesive from the back of the strip and hot glue the strip onto the hem. Now take your remaining square from step 1 and cut it in half. Glue this tab above the LED strip at the center of the hem. Save the other half for another tab.

Use the craft knife to make two holes for the purse clasp. Attach the magnetic end of the purse clasp above the LED strip

Secure the hem to the bag by hot gluing it beneath the LED strip. Flip the bag over and find the center point on the hem.

Make another tab in the same way that you made the one in step 35. Glue the other half of the purse clasp to this tab. Apply glue to the back of the tab.

Attach the tab to the center of the hem. Glue one of the taped connections on the switch, not the switch itself, to the back of the purse clasp.

Glue a small piece of fabric over the switch to protect it.  Make sure all wires except for the battery clip’s are tucked under the hem. Glue the hem down.

Run the battery clip through the hole that you made on the back your battery pouch. Glue the tab of the pouch onto the hem of the bag.

Snap the clip onto the battery and tuck it into the pouch. Finally, attach the straps that you made in steps 7-9 to the other side of the hem. Your Light-Up Tote Bag is now complete!

When the magnet is near the switch, the lights will turn off. The lights will turn on when the bag is opened and the magnet moves away from the switch.