Hamburg love: tutorial tuesday: sew small bags yourself as a gift bag or whatever

Yikes, that was quick! I’m still not rid of my monster cheek and I prefer not to think about the pain involved – so I distract myself and you also get some of it!

So here comes the desired tutorial for the small Bags that were given last weekend as a gift bag at the children’s birthday party. This is really not a miracle, they are sewn at lightning speed, also in batches. In principle, they work like small gym bags, just without lining and without eyelets to hang over your shoulder.

And this is how it works:

cuts to you made of woven fabric or poplin, two rectangles measuring 22.5 cm x 30 cm. You also need two cords, each 80 cm long, per bag. I used paracord here, but any other type of cord does too. Note that if you use a very thick cord, you may need to make the drawstring a little bigger.

Overcast the side and the bottom edge of both rectangles with the overlock or with a zigzag stitch.

Then you put the two rectangles on top of each other on the right and make a small mark on the left and right each 4 cm below the top edge. Sew around once from the mark below, following the red line. Make sure that the beginning and end are sewn well, otherwise the side seam will separate again. Sew about a foot wide from the edge, always far enough from your overcast seam.

Now iron the seam a bit on both sides. Then you fold the edge from the top 4-5 mm down and iron it around.

Now you fold the edge another 2 cm down and iron the edges nice and smooth again. Turn your sewing material over and repeat the step on the other side.

Do not pin the resulting drawstring until you are done ironing. Pins only interfere with ironing.

Now step around the bag with a short edge, preferably on the inside.

Now all you have to do is pull the cord in. To do this, attach a safety pin to one end of the cord (not so far forward, otherwise the cord will fray when you pull it in) and pull it around the bag through the drawstring until you come out on the same side. With the other piece of cord you do exactly the same, just from the other side.

Knot the ends, cut them off again nicely and – if you have used a polyester cord or paracord – carefully flames the ends with a lighter so that they do not fray.

I thought that was a nice idea for the children’s birthday party, where the small bags usually go to the next corner as rubbish. Such bags can be used for everything else: for a photo in a handbag, for chargers in a suitcase when traveling, for headphones, for whatever else would fly loose in bags, suitcases or children’s rooms.

As always: have fun copying, pinning, linking and sharing!

RELATED ITEMS