How to Make a Drawstring Bag?

Drawstring bags are casual and fun. But it’s even more fun making one that mirrors your personality. Even better, you don’t need to have expert sewing skills to pull off this project. Here is a quick guide of making a drawstring bag.

What you need

• Matching thread
• A sewing machine
• Two pieces of cotton fabric (cut out any size depending on the size of drawstring bag you want)
• Iron-on adhesive
• Craft felt
• Safety pin
• Iron
• Scissors
• Two pieces of cording

Process

Step 1

Stick the adhesive on the piece of felt

Step 2:

Print out a letter, any letter on a plain paper and then pin it to the adhesive on the felt

Step 3

Cut the letter neatly with a pair of scissors.

Step 4

Cut the piece of fabric into desired rectangular sizes.

Step 5

Remove the plan paper from the felt letter and then iron it onto any of the pieces of fabric. Makes sure it is at the centre of the fabric.

Step 6

Sew around the letter using a contrasting colour thread. Use a long stitch length for best visual results.

Step 7

With the iron press down on the front piece on three of its edges. Leave one of the shorter sides raw.

Step 8

Proceed to sew the three sides you’ve just ironed.

Step 9

Repeat the same process with the back piece of your backpack.

Step 10

Measure 2.5” from the top of the shorter raw side and mark the levels using a pen. Do this for both the back and front piece. Fold-down 0.5” and then press 2” to meet the mark you made with the pen.

Step 11

Press the fabric and sew it close to the edge of the seam.

Step 12

Repeat the above step for the back piece. At this point, you have loops through which the cording will slide through to close the pack.

Step 13

Take the front and back piece and put them together with the wrong side up. Use straight pins to hold the fabric together. As you do this, make sure that the loops at the opening line up. After, sew them together, starting from below one loop to the next.

Step 14

Turn your backpack inside out and then press it. Now all that is left to do is to thread your cording.

Step 15

To make this step easier, attach a small safety pin to the end of the cording. Start cording from the right and push the safety pin through until it emerges on the left top side. Afterwards, thread it through the back fabric.

Step 16

Both ends of the piece of cording by this point should be hanging on the right side. Even the ends and tie the two pieces with a knot.

Step 17

Repeat the 15^th step with the other cording. But this time, start on the left side. When you are done, the cording should hang from the left.

Step 18

Turn your bag inside out. Put both cords inside the bag and pull each through the corner.

Step 19

Sew zig-zag stitches diagonally to hold the cords.

And there you have it – a simple process of making a beautiful drawstring bag.