Bag sewing tutorial

Here's how to make one of my drawstring bags! Some of my methods are a little unconventional, because I make a lot of it up as I go along.

PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!

Start by making your pattern. It can be any size you want it to be - the square piece is the flat bottom, and the flaps fold up to make the sides.


Pin the pattern onto two layers of fabric - the lining and the outside.


Because the pattern doesn't have a seam allowance, you need to make sure to add that in when you cut the fabric. I use a rotary cutter and cut 1/2" away from the pattern.


When the fabric is cut, take scissors and snip at the four corners of the center square, from the edge of the fabric to the paper pattern. This is very important, because there are no line markings, so it tells you where to sew.


You also need to cut a piece that is 4" by 25" from the lining fabric, to make the drawstring holder.


Now take one piece of cut out fabric, and fold it like so, right sides together.


Starting at the edge of the slit, sew along one side, keeping an even distance from the edge. Then do the same to the other side...


So it looks like this when you reopen it:


Then put the open edges together and sew them in the same manner, so you have four side seams. Repeat with the other piece of cut out fabric. You should now have two things that look like this:


Turn your iron on now.

Turn the outer fabric piece inside out, like so...


And place the inner fabric piece (without turning inside out) inside of it, so it looks like this:


Now fold along one of the seam lines, making sure that you are folding the outer fabric and the lining, and iron along it.


Repeat this with all four seam lines.

Set the bag on the ironing board, sitting on its flat bottom. Push the flat side facing you away from you, so it lies flat against the inside bottom of the bag...


And iron along that fold line. Repeat on all four sides.

Take your 4" by 24" piece of lining fabric, and fold both sides in to meet in the middle. Iron.


Fold this in half, and iron again.


Fold one end over and iron:


Unplug the iron, and return to your sewing machine.

Put the two sides of the folded fabric onto both sides of the unfinished edge of the bag, and put the presser foot down:


Sew around the bag, keeping both sides of the folded fabric on both sides of the bag, until you reach about two inches before the place where you started. Then cut the fabric strip, with about an inch to spare, and fold the left over underneath the part of the strip you are about to sew, so it overlaps slightly with the beginning.


Sew until you hit the place where you started, backstitch, and cut the threads.


All that's left to do now is put the drawstring in!

If you have any questions about this tutorial, feel free to pm me on Ravelry (cinnamoon) or leave a comment.

I would ask that you do not use this tutorial to create bags to sell or trade. Please use it for personal use only. If you wish to make bags to sell or trade, contact me, and maybe we can work something out. Thank you!

Look! A kitty!

I have a kitty! Well, she's my Dad's, really. Here's some photos:



Isn't she adorable? She's 3 months old, and we got her from the animal shelter at an adoption fair today. Her name is Leah, and she's settling in really well. :D

Some photos, perhaps? (AKA - what the heck have I been doing?)

So, what have I been doing for the past few days? Well, this week I knit mainly on my dad's birthday present, and a little bit on my sister's birthday present too. This weekend, however, I threw them to the wind, and took a break. What did I make? First of all I made my Mom some Owlets for mothers day.


Then I started on a cat blanket for the humane society.


It's done now, I'm just working around the edge in single crochet to hopefully flatten it out a little. So far, it isn't working. Two times may be necessary.

A trial layout of the blanket I'm seaming for the KYS charity auction:


And some yummy mmmmal:



I may make a Foliage out of it.

Some KoolAid dyed yarn:


And new sock yarn:

Projects & knitting

Yesterday, Sunday, was awesome. When my Mom asked what I planned to do all day my answer was, simply, "knit". And knit I did. I made a bird for my swappee in the envelope swap. I made a turtle for my friend. I swatched for the honeymoon cami, which is my next project. And I developed a project organization system. It is awesome, in my opinion. Here's how it works:

I'm trying to have no more than three projects going at once. (Not including those in hibernation). Right now I have my Dad's monk, a pair of socks, and a dishcloth. These three projects reside in their own seperate project bags on a shelf of my bookshelf. I'm trying to keep one with me at all times. The project bags contain everything I need for that project.

Two shelves down, the shelf is filled with ziplock bags. These contain a pattern, and the yarn I want to make it with, arranged in order of importance. This allows me to pick out needles, yarn, print the pattern, maybe knit a row or two - in short, my favorite part about my projects - and then put it in a gallon sized ziplock and leave it until another project is finished. When another one is finished, all I have to do is dump the contents of the ziplock into a project bag. My next two projects are going to be a hat for my sister, and the honeymoon cami for me. Then a bag, then some more socks, then some mittens. Works great! :) See ya later!
Annie

Various things

Wow! There's been an overwhelming response to this offer, so I'm going to have to close it for the time being. I might reopen it when school gets out! Thank you all!

I am back. Who knows how many times I've said that? No matter how many times I commit to doing this, I always forget. This time, I'm here to do a little self - promotion. After all, isn't that what a blog is, really? So, here's the deal. I make project bags that look like this:



Needle rolls that look like this when rolled up:



(But with better ribbon placement)
And notions purses like this one:



I love making them, but I can't keep them all! I have been swapping them, but there's one main problem - yarn doesn't buy fabric to make them with. So, let us say you would like a bag/needle roll/notions purse. This is my idea, although it is certainly not original:

1) You go to your local fabric store, Joanns, Walmart, etc, and pick out two fabrics - a lining and an outside - and buy 1 yard of each. This can cost as little as $4 dollars total depending on where you go and what sales there are. The upper price range averages about $20 dollars total, but for a project bag, high end fabric really isn't needed. (If you see a cute ribbon you like, you might want to get that too - but I have plenty of ribbon, so it isn't necessary)

2) You send this fabric to me.

3) Within a month, usually less, I send the finished project bag/needle roll/notions purse to you. In return, I get to keep the extra fabric for my own purposes, whatever they may be. The "price" is 2 yards (1 of each fabric) per project bag/needle roll, and the same for the notions purse - but for the notions purse I will include a set of matching stitch markers too.

What do you think? In my opinion, it's a win-win situation. You get a project bag a lot cheaper than it would normally cost (around $12), and I get to do something I love, and fabric for other projects. You also get to pick the exact fabric you want, and with the wide range of fabrics out there, you're bound to find something you like! If you want to take me up on this offer, give me a PM on Ravelry (Cinnamoon) or leave me a comment here if you don't have a Ravelry account. (If you don't - you should get one!)

Thanks so much for reading my self-promotion. Now back to your regular programming!

F.... is for fear, fun, fotos, fiber, and finally.

Well, Beverooni has struck fear into my heart over taking a blog break (plus reassured me that somebody actually reads this thing), so I suppose I'd better keep going! F is also for fun, so I thought maybe I'd talk about the envelope swap. I started the envelope swap (on ravelry) over a five day weekend, and at the moment we have over 200 member. I recently received my envelope from the first round from pookieandrom. It looked like this when I opened it....


Some stickers, more stickers, an awesome pattern, a little bag of buttons and a postcard! What an awesome envelope! I'm very pleased.

I've also been dying some yarn. This is a fairly lousy photo of the sock yarn I dyed.


And then, of course, I've been knitting. Mittens!

The pattern is gifted mittens, but I think there may be a bit of an errata in the woman's size. A couple of times the stitch numbers didn't match up. At the end, I had to overlap about two inches on either side for seaming to make them fit me...


That could be my fault though, seeing as my gauge was about half an inch off. :D

I have also been collecting Paton's Pooch to make a blanket for me. Because I cleverly decided to start AFTER it had been discontinued, I've been mostly getting it from Karma Yarn Swap, and from RAKs. This is my current collection:


I just LOVE the purple. The red was a Christmas present from my sister, I swapped for one ball of the blue/brown, the blue/white, and the blue/pink, but the purple and one ball of the blue/brown were RAKs from Stillhisangel. Thanks so much! I now have 7 cakes... I'm getting there. :D

E... is for exsisting.

I am here. Do not fear. :-) Not that anyone is reading this, but you know? Nice thought. Perhaps at some point I shall once again return to my long forgotten blog. As of now, though, I am taking a short break. Have fun without me! *Waves to dust bunnies*