Friday 6 September 2013

How to make a Drawstring Bag

My son had to take a costume to school this week and they asked that it be sent in a bag labelled with his name that could be tied at the top.  I gave him a plastic bag with his name written on a label stuck to it.  I thought, surely I could do better than this! I had been meaning to make a drawstring bag for him for a while so decided to get on with it.
The finished size is 12" by 17".
I started with a few fat quarters.
I got these at spotlight for only $1 each. 
I cut a strip out of some of these 3.5" wide and also used another fabric which was once a sheet and has tractors and things on it.  I sewed 4 strips together.  They were all at least 17.5" long so I could make 5 strips.  I forgot to get photos of the strips showing how I got the squares to go diagonally but I showed that in more detail here.
Here are the strips sewn together.
I had this fun backing fabric that seems to have gnomes on it.  I cut a piece the same size as the front.
I cut two pieces of lining fabric the same size.  Tip:  make it larger by about an inch or more.
I also took two strips of fabric the width of the front and about 3.5" wide.  I hemmed the ends and these were used for the drawstrings.
I doubled this over lengthways and put it between the front and lining fabric pieces along the short edge and sewed them into a sandwich with the right sides together and the channel inbetween.
Then I turned them the right way and quilted the front and lining together.  I just did straight lines 0.25" away from all the seams.
I did the same with the back but didn't do any quilting except one line at the top.  It looked cuter without.  Then I placed the right sides together and sewed around the edge.
I cut off any excess fabric from the edge and turned it the right way.  I then did another line of stitching around the edge.
 Then it looked like this.
I then fed some drawstrings in which were from the lining fabric.  It used to be a sheet so I just cut off some of the hem to give me some cord to save me having to make it myself.
And here it is! I think it is pretty cute. 

8 comments:

  1. It is really cute! You're such a great mom to whip that up for him.

    Thanks for sharing this at Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  2. what a good mum you are I would have givenmy boy the plastic bag as he would be bound to lose it-love deex

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  3. Great bag and just what a boy needs. I remember making my son a draw string bag to take stuff to school.

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  4. Those school teachers are hard task masters! Did he get to take his costume in it?

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  5. That is adorable! Way more interesting than a plastic bag with a black label :) Great fabrics, too!

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  6. What a lovely bag he ended up with - as a one of a kind it almost doesn't need his name on, does it? Great work!

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  7. Very very cute! I need to make one of these for my little nephew!
    Thanks for the tutorial!
    Esther
    esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo dot com
    ipatchandquilt dot wordpress dot com

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