Sewing: Week Fifteen Drawstring Bag

Drawstring bag for the fifteenth week of 52 weeks of sewing. This is a little simple project because I’ve got a busy week coming up – plus, I needed somewhere to store my square pattern weights. You could use this little tutorial for anything – a gift bag, a small laundry bag while travelling, or even a bag to carry muffins in to the neighbour. Just adjust the size and you’ll be all set.

Let’s get sewing!

What You Need

1 piece of fabric 20 inches x 10 inches
matching thread
serger
machine
pins
15 inches of ribbon
safety pin
scissors

First, gather your fabric and coordinating ribbon. Here, I decided to make it out of the same fabric I made the square pattern weights out of – I know, matchy.

The trickiest part of this whole post is the button hole – I’m not a fan because it’s not very easy for me. Actually, in all honesty, I just freehanded my button hole on my machine since I’m not that good at setting up the button hole foot on my machine. I suppose I should learn, but I was taught about 4 years ago and I don’t use it that often. Anyway, use it if you’re comfortable, if not, practice first or freehanded it like me. Either way, go slowly.

Serge the top edge of your fabric – the part that measures 10 inches. Don’t serge them together, just serge them to make the ends neat.

Then, 1.75 inches down make a line in the centre that’s 1 inch long. This will be your button hole. The hem will be 1.5 inches, so you’ll have a quarter of an inch on the top and bottom of your button hole.

Stitch your button hole.