Little bags tutorial

Not that the internet is not full of free tutorials, but yesterday I made photos while sewing a bag to show the mom of a friend how easy it is to sew bags. As I have already those photos I will show them here as well and give a short explanation.

These little bags are very useful, to take small things with you, kids like to put in there preferred toys when going to visit someone, you can put a present in and take it as a wrapping, ...

First you chose your fabrics. Something that took always the most time for me. You will need two fabrics: one for inside and one for the outside. I normally chose one that is a little thicker or has stability by itself, so it will stay open, when you set it down. I made them already from oil cloth so they are water resistant and easy to clean.

You have to cut two rectangles in the same size from each fabric. You will also need two strips of about 25 to 30 cm length for the handles.

I wanted to make a children's bag and my rectangles are squares with 30cm side length.

Normally I take them 33cm wide and about 36cm high. The minimum width is 22cm. I used this for the small bag in the last post and I wouldn't suggest to make them smaller!

Prepare your fabric pieces. If you want to decorate them or add a little pocket, do it now.

Put the fabrics with the right side together and close 3 sides. Leave the top side open. Debaste the edges.

Now you have to fold the sac so that one side seam is on the bottom seam. Mark a line rectangular to the seams. The line is as long as you want the bags bottom plane to be wide. I normally take 10cm. For the small one from the last post I chose 8cm.

Fix it with pins and sew along the line. This you have to do 4 times to form the bottoms of the inner and outer bag.

Cut off the triangle that you separated from the rest of the bag by the seam and debaste the edge.

Should be looking from the right side like that:

You now have to sacs.  

Put one into the other so that the right sides are facing each other. I put always the sac with the thicker fabric in the inside.

Fix the sacs together with pins, so that the side seams are meeting each other. Add the handles between the two layers also. The opening of the handle (where you later have your hand) should be about 7cm.

Sew the sacs together leaving an opening of about 10 cm to turn the bag. While sewing it works well to have the thicker fabric on top, as it lays better flat. When having the light fabric on top the foot of my machine often pushes a fluffy wave that becomes later an unattractive plead.

Turn the bag and sew a complete round on the upper edge of the bag closing the opening at the same time.

Now your bag is ready! Mine can be used in two ways depending which fabric you want to be outside.

For me this method is the basic to form bodys also for other bags. You can vary for example the handles to only one long handle to carry over the shoulder. You can add a zipper to close the bag or a flap. Tomorrow I will show in a new post some of the bags I already made by this method.  

A bientôt,

Jane