I have made 3 totes and didn't add anything. My daughter takes hers to work every day and loves it. My grandaughter will be starting college in 2 weeks and is taking hers to use as tote for carrying all of her stuff from the dorm room to the bathroom. She did take it for a test drive when she and her friends went to the beach for a week and she said it held up great. I haven't used mine yet. It looks so pretty sitting on my kitchen desk/bookcase. lol I am using a pattern from a book by Lisa Lam...The Bag Making Bible.
And I want to add too...as soon as I saw the picture of your daughter's bag I fell in love with it. I LOVE pink.
I do have a pattern that I bought at JoAnn's that has reinforcement in the bottom but I probably won't get to making that for a year. LOL I have too many other projects that I want to do first.