I'd actually been looking at tissue pouches on Amazon for a while. But I kept coming back to this IKEA tote sitting in the closet — the blue and cream chevron print has always felt a little Japanese-textile to me, too nice for a $2 grocery bag. I didn't want to see it worn out and thrown away, so I decided to try turning it into something instead. I didn't have a full plan going in, just figured out each next step as I went. The whole thing came together in about an hour on a Friday afternoon, in that quiet window after work before the kids got home from summer camp.