Thursday, January 3, 2013

DIY - Small Drawstring Bag

This afternoon, during nap time, I put together a small draw string bag complete with a super plush lining (which was a pain to work with).  The lining is perfect for muffling the clinks of it's content and maybe just fancy enough to be a bag of jewels in Ivory's princess filled world.  In it's aftermath however, I will be sweeping up purple fuzzies for days to come. 


"Why", you might ask, "are you spending that sacred nap time sewing a silly little draw string bag?"  It wasn't just nap time, but double nap time.  That is right, both of the children are asleep. Well, because the kids got this for Christmas:


A super awesome, positively amazing marble run crafted by my husband in his shop behind the house.  (Yes, I have better pictures of this.. but, just look at Sylvan's super excited face, and that is why I chose this one over all the others.) So now we have a marble problem.  There are somewhere - underneath furniture, in corners, in the sofa, under flowerpots and in this bowl - a hundred of them.  So, I dug through my stash of fabric and pulled out these:


A soft fuzzy remnant piece of a blanket, and a few nice cotton prints and a drawstring cord.  I ended up nixing the cord and using a scrap piece of fabric left over from our curtains instead. 

Materials:

The bag I made is roughly 5" x 7".  
In order to make a bag this size you need:

2 pieces exterior fabric (swirls) - 6" x 8"
2 pieces lining fabric (purple plush) - 6" x 8"
4 pieces to hold the drawstring (brown) - 2" x 4"
2 draw string pieces (purple) - 2" x 19"

Ruler
Scissors
Thread
Sewing Machine

 So, take the lining and exterior fabric face the right side of the fabric together and sew along the short side.  All seam allowances are 1/2".


Open these up, and put them right together right side of the exterior fabric and the right side of the lining fabric facing each other.  Leave an opening at the bottom of the lining fabric (between the red pins) and sew the pieces together.  Turn right side out. Top stitch the opening in the lining shut.  


Tuck the exterior fabric into the lining (backwards of what the final drawstring will be).  Line up the side seams with the bottom of the back.  Sew the corners perpendicular to the side seam making a little triangle (from the white pin head to the second pin head). This gives the bag a flat bottom when you turn in right side out.


Take the 2" x 4" pieces.  Pair them up, right sides together, sew using 1/2 inch seam allowance, leaving an opening (between the pins).  Turn right side out and top stitch as shown below.


Attach these tabs sewing ONLY THE LONG sides.  This gives you a loop in which the drawstring sits. My bag was a little small, so it was pretty tricky to sew these pieces on.  It would be much easier on a larger bag. 


Now to make the drawstrings.  Take the 2" wide strips.  Fold each one in half and iron a crease down the center.  Open up and iron both edges into the middle, and then iron it shut again.  So the final width should be 1/2".  Top stitch on all edges. 


Pull the drawstrings through the laps so that they overlap through the loops and are sewed shut with a zigzag stitch at opposite sides. 


Since the drawstrings are two separate loops the bag cinches shut when they are pulled and there it is again:

Total Time Involved: from start to finish 1.5 hours.
Project Specific Cost: $0 - Sure, I could try and figure a per yard cost, but I won't.  All, but the drawstring fabric, were given to me.  The drawstring fabric is left over from our dining room curtains as was the thread. So, on this little project, I did not spend anything other than time.






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