Tues Tutorial~ Quick Country Style Drawstring (Gift) Bag

 

  The farm guys in the family have traveled twice in the past year to sell cattle. So for Christmas I made a drawstring bag to hold their gift and also thought might be suitable for a cowboy hat wearing guy to stash away in his clothes bag. I don't think they carry rolling suitcases? 

   The thing that takes me time in making draw string bags, is threading the string through the casing.  I require 2 strings so it can be pulled from each side. That means double threading. I've decided this type of casing works easiest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tuesday Tutorial

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Please do not get hung up on measurements.

My green pieces were already cut when I got them in a scrap bag.

You use the size you need to hold your gift. 

These 2 green pieces are 12½ inch square.

These pieces are laying on a 1 inch grid. 

 

The brown pieces to be the channel to hold the string,

is cut 1 inch shorter

than the width of the main piece.

This brown piece is 11½ x 4½ inches.

Fold each end of the brown pieces 1/4 inch and top stitch.

Then fold the pieces in half lengthwise "hotdog style" to meet raw edges.

Stitch to green pieces as shown.

A serger was used here for a clean finish.

 

Notice the ends of the brown piece is short on sides

by a seam

so you have room to stitch seams

without catching the string channel in the seam.

My bag needed to be longer,

so I added pieces to the bottom.

You do what you need to fit your item.

Starting below the string channel,

use your favorite seam finishing method.

A serger was used here.

You can use the French Seam if you have enough seam allowance.

Cut or make your string to go about 2 inches beyond each side.

A tip I saw recently was to use something like this thing

that could hold 2 strings at once.

Slide both strings through one side at one time.

 

Pin one string down

and take the other through the other side.

Tie the first string off (see on right)

then slide the other through the other side and tie.

Done.

 

I added a key chain trinket that came in this box,

because they are all deer hunters.

The red ribbon is attached to the gift tags I made. 

 

Hope this tutorial was easy enough to follow

to make any size bag

with the size of fabric pieces you have.

 

Consider piecing together fabrics to make a patchwork bag.