Look what my neighbor and I did to an Estee Lauder tote!

This evening, my neighbor Teresa came over.  Our kids grew up together, and her older daughter Victoria is in San Francisco doing her medical internship.  Teresa wanted me to help her mend a couple of sundresses for Vicki to wear when she's here (it's so, so hot here in the summer).  Teresa, who is a pharmacist and interested in absolutely everything, is a fun, enthusiastic lady.  She doesn't have a sewing machine and does whatever mending she has by hand.

After we fixed the sundresses she went home and got a very cute hot pink. orange and white Estee Lauder tote (brighter than is showing up in the pix).  She'd gone to the fabric store and purchased a zipper to install along the top to make it more useful for Vicki.  Teresa matched the colors perfectly, and the fabric store clerk suggested she install the zipper by hand, and Teresa was wondering what I thought because I had told her the Bernina sews through heavier fabrics well.

The tote is a very firm fabric, and this was actually an easy job once I got it started.  Finally, I pulled a piece of ribbon through the skimpy little zipper pull to make it easier to grab.  After stitching it down all the way around along the original tote topstitching, I topstitched again on the bottom edge of the zipper tape to keep it down against the lining.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out that I took a couple of pictures: