Hey it’s Vanessa. I’m back with a brand
new tutorial and this time we’re going to be making these really cute holiday treat
or gift bags. They’re a double draw-string so to open it you basically just pull it open
at the top. And to cinch them up, you can just do it like this. Super easy to make.
A great scrap busting project to use up those 2 ½ inch strips that most of you probably
have out there. Now let’s get started. So the fabric that I’m going to be working
with is called Santa’s Here by Benartex. And what you want to do for this size of a
bag, ok? You want to just piece together five of the strips. If you want the bag to be bigger
you just cut a longer strip. Or if you want it to be wider you add more strips to it.
So I have five nice coordinating prints here. And we are going to actually cut this in half
because when we piece them together you end up with getting this, if you use a quarter
of an inch seam that’s pretty consistent, from here to here the width of the whole strip
set should measure 10 ½ inches. And the other way, it’s going to be about 42 to 44 depending
on what fabric collection you’re using. So if you cut that in half and you end up
with two chunks that are 21 inches. You can make two outer parts of the drawstring bags.
So all we’re going to need is one of those. So just to go over the measurement again,
I have cut that long strip set in a chunk here, in half pretty much, that measures 21
inches by 10 ½ ok? Now once you have that, this is obviously going to be the outside
part of our bag here. For the lining, I like to use just a straight, you know, solid fabric,
something simple that’s not going to have quite as many seams as our strip set here.
And to do that, I’ll you’re going to do is cut out a corresponding piece of your lining
fabric. It has to measure the same as the front. So if your quarter inch seam is not
that consistent, no worries, just measure it. Once you piece together the five strips,
measure it and see what the width measurement is and cut your lining piece to match it,
ok? So 21 inches by 10 ½ . Now I have pieced together, this is my lining,
just a solid red fabric here. And I have layered one on top of the other with the pretty sides
touching, ok? So one side to the pretty side of the strip set. And I’ve sewn with the
quarter inch seam right and the left. So you’re sewing up the two shorts sides. After you
do that, you’re going to want to grab it in the center here. Now notice what I’m
doing. I’m starting and putting them together right here where the seams that we just sewed
are right down the center. So grab that in place, get your seams together and put a pin
there just to secure everything in place. And it helps if you put one seam allowance
going in one direction and one in the other so you reduce bulk a little bit on the ends.
Now let’s do this one here, ok? Just put a pin there. And I’m just putting a pin
so that everything is held in place for my markings. So next there’s quite a few markings that
we’re doing here so let me show you what you’ve got to do. On all four corners of
this entire unit, we are measuring 1 ½ inch by 1 ½ inch squares. So I’ve already marked
them out for you, but you can see here, 1 ½ by 1 ½ go ahead and mark that on all four
corners. Now the reason I did 1 ½ is that I don’t want to mess with this seam that
we have here with the extra bulk. So don’t bother to cut it, just clear it. You know,
come a little bit further down, that’s why we have 1 ½ by 1 ½ . Now some other marks. On the, the side that
is the outer part of our bag, we have come here. Let me change this pin around because
what I did was flip this seam allowance towards the strip set. And from the edge of my seam
allowance here, I measured one inch. So can you see where this goes from here to the number
one. I put a mark. And then from one to two which is a one inch measurement, I put another
mark. And this is going to be your opening to run our drawstring closure through. You’re
going to repeat that to the other side. So we come down here. I flip the seam allowance.
From the edge of that red lining, over here is one, made a mark, one more inch over is
two, ok? So we have an inch here and then the next inch are going to be our opening.
So we do that just on the strip set side. Now on the lining side, we also need to leave
an opening to flip the whole bag right side out through. So just on one of the flat sides
of the lining piece, I’ve left, what, about a four inch opening. So just make those marks
so you know where to start and stop sewing. And then you’re going to cut out those 1
½ inch by 1 ½ inch squares that we put on all the corners. So I’ve done two, let me
cut out the other two real quick. Alright so now we’re ready to head over
to the sewing machine and do some sewing. So keep in mind, you are going to have to
start and stop at several places. The opening that we have on our lining, I will have to
come down in here, ok? Backstitch and, backstitch at the beginning and at the end. So I’m
going to backstitch here and stitch off and backstitch. Then I’ll come here, backstitch,
come down to here, backstitch, skip to here, backstitch. So there’s quite a few openings.
It’s just the opening to flip it right side out and then the openings that we have on
either side for the drawstrings. And then after we do these sides, we’re going to
come back and do the corners. So let me just stitch up the sides and show you what we end
up with. Now here’s a quick tip, if you’re sewing
and you need to skip a space and keep sewing again, there’s no need to cut your thread
completely. What I do is I backstitch to stop it off. And then I’ll pull the needle up.
And I’ll just pull it. Lift your presser foot and pull that thread to come all the
way to the other one. And when I’m done, then all you have to do is just snip those
threads and it will come right off. So I’m going to restart my stitching here.
Getting to another point where I need to backstitch.
Stop, needle up, lift presser foot, pull it forward, come to the next part where I’m
supposed to start stitching, backstitch. And then keep going. Alright, so you can see where I stopped and
started again and then you have these threads. But because we’ve backstitched and secured
it in place, everything is secure and you can just trim away those threads. Just a quick
little tip for a lot of starting and stopping if you have projects like that. And this little
drawstring part, we’ll trim that. And in here too. Alright, so now let’s head back
to the sewing machine and do our corners. Now to box your corners, it’s really simple.
You’re just going to separate the two layers of the fabric, if I can get my hands in here,
great. And you’re just going to spread them all like this, side to side so that this lays
nice and flat. And then we’re going to take our quarter inch seam allowance and just stitch
all the way across. It’s not going to match up exactly and the reason for that is that
we’ve sewn a seam allowance here. But it’s not a big deal. Just come in a little bit
further about 3/8ths of an inch or even a half of an inch would be fine. And backstitch
at the beginning and the end. And we’re going to do that to all four corners. Alright. So we’re done with all that. You should
have four boxed ends here. Now come to the lining part and you’re going to flip the
entire thing right side out. Ok. Now this is going to be the outside of our bag with
the strips of course. So we are going to close up our lining piece. I like to put my hand
in here and make sure that I have everything poked out before I stitch up the lining opening,
ok? Let’s do the same for these guys. Looks good. Now for the opening here, this is going
to be inside the drawstring bag so it’s not going to make a difference. I mean you
can do it by hand if you want to but I’m just quickly going to go over to the sewing
machine and stitch this in place. So if you want to get it to hold, just hit it with a
quick iron. Ok. Let’s stitch that closed real quick.
Alright. So now, I just stitched that up there, you’re
going to push the lining inside the bag. Looks good. It’s a nice little sized gift bag
I think. And now give it a quick press right around the top opening. You want to get that
lining to tuck inside and to stay in place so that we can topstitch it. Ok. We’ll do
the quick topstitch now. And then we’re going to go around, once we’re done with
this and the topstitching part is we’re just stitching close to the top edge to keep
that lining down into place, ok? Ok, so the topstitching part is done. Now we just need
to create the casing that we’re going to run our strips or ribbon, whatever you want
to do, for the double drawstring part. So to do that, you can see on the side here,
you can’t really see where my opening is because we did it in the seam allowance. So
it basically just folded under the seam allowance in there. And you can’t really see where
the opening is so you get a nice clean finish. But if you reach in here you’ll see that
there is an opening, ok? Now if your seam allowances have been pretty consistent then
you’re going to have it on the exact same part here. So what you want to do at this
point is to locate the top and the bottom of that opening. So mine, I’m going to clear
it a little, just in case you make some wider strips. And then up here I’m going to start
it here. Now you just need to take your little ruler and make those one inch marks all the
way straight around the entire bag. Alright so we’re coming around to the other end
here. I’m just going to head to the sewing machine and you’re going to use those lines
that you marked as your stitching guides. So that’s exactly where you’re going to
stitch, all the way around on both lines. And if you have a free arm that you can get
rid of or expose on your sewing machine, it’s definitely going to help. It’s going to
go a lot smoother and easier. Ok. So the bag is done. The next step is to create
the drawstring that we’re going to run through there. And the pen that I used, you can get
rid of it with an iron. So let me get rid of those blue marks real quick. Alright, now
to prep our strips, you’re going to need two strips, ribbon strips, whatever you want
to put through here. Now mine measure about 34 inches. You could do 36, you could make
them longer if you want to. But I really wouldn’t go much shorter than about 32 inches. Now
it’s cool because we get to use the strips that we had in our 2 ½ inch strip pack. Now
to prep this, you can get rid of your selvedges at this point. I’m just going to briefly
show you how we prep the fabric to create the strip right. So you’re going to lay
the fabric with the pretty side face down. And you’re going to fold it in half lengthwise.
And you’re going to repeat that to the whole strip of whatever length you decide to do.
Then you’re going to come and grab the ends and put them to the center crease. Make them
reach the center crease. And press that again. Just like a double fold binding that we’re
making here. And then you refold everything on that initial fold line. That way all of
your raw edges are concealed on the inside and you get a nice strip here. Now after you’re
done with that, you obviously want to close this up so you go back to the sewing machine,
and with a straight stitch, stitch right here close to both folded edges to keep the whole
shut. Well after you do that to two strips you’re
going to end up with something that looks like this. And I have two here and several
of the strips, packs that you can buy come with multiples of different fabrics. On this
one I used two different ones, you can see that we’re kind of still in the same family.
They’re the neutrals of the collection. But on this one, I used two strips that were
the same. So play around with that. Now to do this part, you are going to slip this in
through one side of the casing. And you’re just going to push it through. Notice I use
a large safety pin. I just put the safety pin right through it and put it right through
my casing. And I’m just going to push it all the way through until it comes back out
on the same side I just went in through. So it needs to go around the entire bag once,
ok? And I’ll show you, don’t come out right here on the first opening. You’ve
got to make one full swing around the entire thing. And that’s why they need to be pretty
long. So you can see this is where I came in and this is where I’m going to come back
out. See that, how I went one full way around. And then just tug and push it out and fix
it up so they end up being equal lengths on the ends. Ok, and you can leave these guys
here loosely. You can tie your knot now. I just grab them both and just tie a big knot
to hold them in place so they’re not loose whenever you’re opening and closing the
drawstring. So just like that, just a little knot. And now with the other strip, you’re
going to do the same thing but you’re going to start on the opposite side. So we started
here and we ended here. And now we’re going to start on this end of our bag and do the
same thing, a full rotation and come back right where I went in. Alright. And there
is your finished little holiday drawstring gift bag. I hope you all enjoyed this super easy tutorial.
If you have your 2 ½ inch strips, you can use those. Use them from your stash. Remember
that we always include a link in the description box below where you can click and find all
the materials and supplies that I used to make this project for you today. If you enjoyed
the video tutorial, definitely hit it with that thumbs up below. Share it across the
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next time.
