Craftiness is Next to Godliness: Brown Bag it DIY Style
Remember way back when I showed you how to make waterproof fabric out of old plastic bags? I said I was going to make a lunch bag and I finally did it! Sure, it’s almost 6 months late, but it’s worth the wait. And now I’m going to teach you how to make your own.
Oh, and if you don’t want to make your own plastic fabric, you can buy oilcloth or use an old vinyl tablecloth, but the plastic bags end up looking pretty cool.
Cut out the pattern from paper.
What you need:
-Enough fabric to cut out the pattern. Since I used plastic bag fabric, it wasn’t an exact science. But if you’re using regular fabric, you could probably get everything out of a half yard with fabric to spare.
-Scissors
-Sewing machine (or needle and thread in a pinch)
-Paper grocery bag or newspaper to cut out the pattern
-Ruler
-Marker
Trace the pattern onto your plastic fabric.
Now put it together:
1. Cut open your paper bag so that it’s flat and then trace the pattern onto the bag. You’ll need to cut out two rectangles: one that’s 10.75″ x 6″ and one that’s 27.75″ x 4″. Cut out your two rectangles.
2. Use the pattern you’ve cut to trace outlines onto the wrong side of your fabric (for the non-sewers out there, the wrong side means the side of your fabric you want to be on the inside of your bag and the right side means the side of your fabric you want to be on the outside of
Sew your hems.
your bag). You’ll need to trace two of the 10.75″ x 6″ rectangles and one of the 27.5″ x 4″ rectangles. If you’re using fabric made from bags, you might not have a long enough stretch of fabric to get the whole 27.5 inches in one go. That’s cool. Just cut a lot of 4″ wide strips that total about 29 or 30 inches long and you’ll sew them together later. I used three strips and it ended up looking pretty cool.
3. Fold over the top of your 10.75″ rectangles and sew a hem.
Sew your 4" wide strips together to make one big strip.
4. With right sides together and wrong sides out, sew each of your 4″ wide strips together. When you’re finished, measure 27.75″ and cut off the excess.
5. Fold a hem on either end of your 27.75″ pieces and sew both hems down.
Allow your cat to examine your new bag.
6. With wrong sides out, pin the 27.75″ strip around the edges of one of your 10.75″ rectangles. Sew along that edge leaving about 1/8″ seam allowance. Be careful not to sew over the pins if you’re using a sewing machine.
7. Pin the other side of your strip around the edges of the other 10.75″ rectangle, again with the wrong side out. Sew along the edge leaving about 1/8″ seam allowance.
8. Turn the bag right side out, trim the ends of the threads and voila!
If you’re new to using a sewing machine, the best way to turn corners on a project like this is to leave the needle in your project, lift the foot, and manually turn the project 90 degrees so that you’re now sewing in a new direction.
Shut it with a clothespin and you're done!
If you want, you can sew a buttonhole and a button, but I’ve found that a clothespin works pretty well and looks cool.
Happy crafting, kids!
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Craftiness, crafts, diy, free. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
