Easy Drawstring Bag With Enclosed Seams

June 10, 2018 · 2 Comments

Easy Drawstring Bag With Enclosed Seams

My friend Wendy recently asked me to make her a little bag. She and her husband Danny play Scrabble, and they need a bag to keep the Scrabble tiles in. It also needed to be big enough to get a hand in to take a tile out.

These were her only requirements!

I knew I had some suitable fabric, and that I would be able to whip up an easy drawstring bag quite easily.

Wendy’s a knitter but she doesn’t sew. She and Danny are also lovely, very kind, sweet with my boys and have invited us round to dinner lots of times. Danny is a very good cook, so going round to theirs is a treat!

So I added some of my own requirements to the easy drawstring bag.

Because it’s going to be used quite a lot, and hands are going to be in and out of it, I decided on enclosed seams to give them some strength and to prevent it from becoming tatty quickly.

I also decided on boxed corners, so that it will sit on a table without the tiles spilling out everywhere.

Little drawstring bags are useful for all kinds of things, even if you don’t play Scrabble!

So here are the instructions if you want to make for one yourself or for some kind hearted people you know who might find a use for one.

How to Make an Easy Drawstring Bag

You Will Need

A piece of cotton fabric large enough for your bag. I used a piece 23 cm x 45 cm (6 inches x 17 3/4 inches).

Bias binding

String or cord. I used bakers’ twine (affiliate link).

Sewing the Bag

If your fabric has a directional print, you’ll need to cut it in half widthways, turn one half round then sew it back together.

1. With the wrong sides together, fold the fabric in half widthways. Pin the sides and sew a 1 cm (1/4 inch) seam. Cut the seams in half. Press the seams.

2. Turn the bag inside out. Pin the side seams so that the raw edges are enclosed. Sew the seams again, a couple of mm away from where the raw edges are inside the seam. Press again.

3. To make the boxed corners, turn the bag the correct way out again. These seams are going to be enclosed too!

Take one of the corners and squish it flat so that the side seam is next to the bottom of the bag. If you used a directional print and reassembled the fabric, there’ll seam along the bottom. Otherwise you’ll need to press it so that there’s a fold. Using your finger might be enough. It’s just to get the corners square.

Measure up 2 cm (3/4 inch) up from the corner and pin. Sew across the corner at right angles to the seam. Cut the corner off. Repeat with the other corner.

4. Turn the bag the wrong way out again. Pin the corner seams and sew to enclose the raw edges.

5. Take the top edge and fold it over. Fold it over again. Pin, then sew, keeping close to the lower edge of the folded section.

6. To make the casing, cut 2 pieces of bias binding about a cm (1/4 inch) shorter than the width of the bag. Pin both pieces to the bag on the right side, just below the top, leaving a gap between each piece at the sides. Sew along each long edge of the bias binding. Don’t sew the short edges!

7. Cut a length of ribbon or cord 4 times the width of the bag, plus a bit extra. Tie one end to a safety pin and pass it through both pieces of the bias binding. You’ll need to go through each piece twice.

8. Tie the ends of the cord. Before cutting anything, pull the cord to check that it closes. There will be 2 bits of cord at each opening, so if it doesn’t work, try pulling the on the other bit.

Now your bag’s ready for your Scrabble tiles!

Tips

To reduce the amount of visible stitching on the outside of the bag, pin the bias binding so that it overlaps the bottom of the hem.

If you are using ribbon or thicker cord, you might prefer to pass it through the casing just once and pull the bag closed on one side rather than on both sides.

A piece of velvet or corduroy would make a nice bag for storing scrabble tiles or something similar, but it might be a bit thick for enclosed seams. If the fabric won’t fray, you could pink the seams instead.

If you liked this, you might also like these posts.

Drawstring bag from a pillowcase

Fat quarter fabric basket

Easy Lace Zip Purse Tutorial

February 22, 2018 · 3 Comments

Easy Lace Zip Purse Tutorial

Although I know of people who will go to some lengths to avoid sewing with zips, it’s difficult to avoid them altogether, especially if you like to make lots of different things.

Lace zips are a fab idea.

They turn something functional into a feature.

They also make something that can be a fiddly pain in the neck (I’m not going to lie, even using my easy way of sewing in a zip, it can still be tricky and I’ve had to unpick them more than once!) into something much easier to sew.

This easy lace zip purse tutorial shows how to make a little purse featuring a lace zip.

The outer, lining and interfacing are all cut from the same pattern piece. The flat bottom is achieved by sewing boxed corners, and the zip is sewn on last.

The fabric I used is from the Tilda Lemon Tree range, which I was sent in exchange for participating in the Tilda bloghop.

There’s a free pattern to go along with this easy lace zip purse tutorial which you can download here.

Instructions For Making an Easy Lace Zip Purse

You Will Need

Fabric for the outer and the lining (a fat 8th of each would be big enough), sew in interfacing, a 15 cm lace zip, usual sewing supplies.

Seam allowances are 1 cm.

1. Using the template (the free pattern’s here), cut 2 from the outer, 2 from the lining and 2 from interfacing.
2.Take the outer and interfacing pieces . With the right sides of the outer sections together, and the interfacing on the outside, sew the straight edges together.

Do the same with the lining. Trim the seams.
3. To make the boxed corners, squash the corners flat so that the seams are together. Measure 1.5 cm up the seam from the corner and pin. Sew across at right angles to the seam. Cut the corners off. Do this with the outer section, the lining and the interfacing.

4. Put the lining and the outer with the right sides together and pin. Sew around the curved edges, leaving a gap in one side. Trim the seam and snip the curves if necessary. Turn out. Slip stitch the opening.
5. To cover the ends of the zip, cut 2 rectangles from the outer fabric measuring 5 cm x 7 cm. Fold in half lengthways to find the middle. Fold the raw edges into the middle.

Fold in half widthways. Lay the zip on the top half. Fold the other half up so that the end of the zip is covered. Fold the raw edges inwards and pin in place. Sew across the top.

Repeat for the other end.

6. Open the zip. Pin one side of the zip to one side of the purse opening. Top stitch the zip in place. Repeat for the other half of the zip. If you prefer, you can sew the zip on by hand.

Here’s the finished purse!

If you would like to see what other people have made, the blog hop is here.

A Super Easy Pattern Weights Tutorial

June 28, 2016 · 38 Comments

A Pattern Weights Tutorial

Whenever I make clothes for myself, whether I use a commercial pattern or a pattern that I made myself, it’s the cutting out stage that always takes longest.

Since I started using a rotary cutter, the process has got quicker than when I was using scissors, but it still takes a while.

This is where pattern weights can be very useful!

Pattern weights remove the need for pins. You simply lay the pattern pieces over the fabric, pop your pattern weights on top, grab your rotary cutter and away you go!

Pattern weights can be whatever you like. Rocks, metal rings or little bean bags, it doesn’t matter. They just have to be heavy enough to hold the pattern pieces steady while you cut them out.

This is not an idea that I have dreamt up myself. It’s something else I have learnt from The Great British Sewing Bee.

It’s obvious that the contestants need to maximise their time. If they can save time in the cutting out stage without compromising the finish of their thing, then they’ll have more time to spend making sure that their sewing is up to scratch.

Although I am not in a competition I’m all in favour of saving time. So I decided to make some pattern weights to speed up the process!

How to Make Pattern Weights

You Will Need

Scraps of fabric, rice, barley or something similar (uncooked!), usual sewing supplies.

Cutting Out

For my pattern weights, I used a rectangle 18 cm x 9 cm. You can make yours whatever size you like, but to get that nice triangular shape, the rectangle you use will need to be roughly the same size as 2 squares joined together.

Cut 1 rectangle for each pattern weight.

Sewing Up

1. Fold 1 of the rectangles in half so that the right sides are together. Sew along the bottom and the side. Trim the seams.

2. Turn it out and fill with rice. Be careful not to overfill it. The rice will need to be able to move about and overfilling will also make it difficult to sew up. About 2 thirds full is probably about right.

3. Fold the raw edge over so that it is inside and press with your finger.

4. Pin the top of the pattern weight so that the side seam is in the middle. By doing this, the top edge will run at right angles to the bottom edge.

5. Slip stitch the opening.

You now have 1 pattern weight! How many you make is up to you. I made 9.

Tips

If you don’t have any rice, you could use barley, dried peas or dried lentils.
If you are short on time, batching will make the whole process quicker.
Have a rummage through your fabric scraps. They’re a great way to use up odds and ends of lovely things that are too small to do much with, but that you don’t want to throw away!
If you need somewhere to keep your pattern weights, you could make a little box or a bowl. The smallest of these fabric boxes would probably about the right size!

Or you could make a burlap bowl.Or you could crochet a bowl.

Linking up here.

A Crocheted Phone Cosy Tutorial

October 18, 2015 · 8 Comments

Last time I posted, I wrote about crocheting cables. You can read about that here!

I was so happy that I’d figured out how to crochet cables I had to make something!

Having the attention span of a gnat, it needed to be something small and quick. So I made a phone cosy. I wasn’t sure whether a phone cosy was a real thing, but I checked with Mr Google and he said it was.

So here we are!

The phone cosy has a cable on one side, worked over 4 stitches. To make the cable, you will be crocheting double trebles for the part where it crosses over, on the wrong side. On the right side, you will be crocheting trebles round the post of the stitch. The rest of the phone cosy is worked in trebles.

The dimensions of the cosy fit my phone which is a Moto G 3rd generation. You might need to adapt the pattern for your own phone. Although as crochet is stretchy, it shouldn’t be a problem unless your phone is either ridiculously huge or unbelievably tiny.

I used super chunky yarn and a 5.5 mm hook. These are affiliate links.

Also please be aware that being British, I have used British crocheting terms.

How to Make a Crocheted Phone Cosy

1. Make 13 ch.

2. Starting with the 4th ch from the hook, crochet 1 tr (US dc) into each ch until the end of the row.

3. 3 ch, then 1 tr into 2nd stitch from hook. To start the cable, miss 2 stitches, then 1 dtr (US tr) into each of the next 2 stitches. Go back to the stitches you missed and, keeping your hook at the front of your work, dtr into the first stitch you missed, going in through the back of the stitch. Repeat for the other stitch you missed. Miss out the next 2 stitches (you’ve already worked those!), tr into the next stitch, 1 tr into each stitch to the end of the row.

4. 3 ch, then 1 tr into 2nd stitch from hook. 1 tr into each of the next 4 stitches. 1 tr round the post of each of the next 4 stitches. Tr to the end of the row.

If you would like a more detailed instructions for crocheting cable stitch, you can find a tutorial here.

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until your work measures 37 cm.

5. Fold over 14 cm with the cable on the left. Pin the sides, then slip stitch them together.

6. With the phone inside the cosy, fold the top over and mark with a pin where the buttons will need to go. Sew on the buttons.

7. On the edge of the flap section, find the 5th stitch in from the right. Reattach the yarn and crochet 6 chains (you might need more if your button is enormous!). Slip stitch the end of the chains to the 5th stitch in from the left.

8. Put your phone in its cosy and enjoy how snuggly it looks!

If you liked this post you might also like this:

A Crocheted Mug Cosy Tutorial

If you sign up for the monthly email, you can download a pattern for a crocheted purse!

If you are interested in extending your knowledge of crochet stitches, I’ll be launching an ecourse entitled The Ultimate Guide to Crochet Stitches in January. By signing up for the monthly newsletter you won’t miss out, plus you will be offered the course for half price!