Another cross body bag plus drawstring bag

Happy Thursday everyone! In one of my last posts (cross body bag) I mentioned I made another bag, well here it is finally! It's really easy to do.

I used one of Chris's old shirts he gave to me. I turned it inside out making sure the bottom hems were even and I decided how big I wanted my square (looking back I realized I should have curved the bottom edges instead of cutting it the way I did.) I used a white oil pastel crayon to make my outline and cut, I used bobby pins to hold the two layers together and hand sewed the bottom and two sides then hemmed the top. I make a mark where I wanted the closure to be (about an inch down from the hem and 1/2 inch wide) then cut and added 3 studs to a piece of fabric that will be the second part of the closure, sew to non cut layer of bag. For the straps I cut [6] 1-1/2 strips from another shirt and braided to the length I wanted.(it will stretch so don't make it super long.) Sew both ends to the inside side hem of the bag and you're pretty much done.

Now for the drawstring bag, I used the sleeve from the shirt I used to cut the bag from still turned inside out and made my square/rectangle shape. It's pretty much repeating what I did for the actual bag but I used the original hem from the sleeve as the opening/drawstring part. When you're sewing the sides do not sew all the way to the top, stop where the seam for the hem starts. The hem should be open on both layers and both sides. Cut a strip of fabric or use string or ribbon, attach one end to a bobby pin like I did or a safety pin and feed through one of the openings and continue through to the other layer making sure to leave a tail out from where you started. Push the string till it's out on the other side and sew/tie both tails together and you''re done!

Sewing everything by hand is really time consuming so if you have a sewing machine or have access to one I say use it! I think this will be a really easy project for someone just learning how to sew with a sewing machine, 3 straight stitches and you are done sewing the drawstring bag, 3 more straight stitches and sew the strap on and you're done with the bag. I hope you guys enjoyed this really easy tutorial =)

Thank you all so very much for following my blog!

It really means a lot to me =)

Until next time...