Who Knew Tennyson Could Sew?

Sir Alfred Tennyson said, "in springtime a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love". What Tennnyson really meant was, In springtime a sewist's fancy turns to new projects. This is the only explanation why I could be blogging about making a drawstring bag.

instead of my Beothuk Star, aka Granny's Liberty Baby Quilt.

Instead of my Fireburst quilt, aka the 4th July quilt.

Or even this pile of stuff, which is really my Japanese kokka economy square quilt.

A month or two ago I made some 1 hr baskets for myself, my sister, my daughter and my niece from my stash of Alice In Wonderland fabric from the 2017 Rifle Range.

 We all loved them, and I promised to make my sister and myself some additional drawstring bags. She doesn't sew but she is a great knitter. And as we all know, a new knitting project requires a new project bag. My sister spends her weekends in her caravan at the beach. She can't let the family down by having her knitting in a tacky old carrier bag!

The two girls had liked the blue Alice fabric the best of all.

 

So, they got their baskets from that.

 



 There was a little bit of this left. A piece about 11" wide, and 10" long, narrowing to 9" wide and 10" long. The plan was always to bulk this out with another coordinate.

Fast forward today. I was at the doctor's and waiting, waiting in the waiting room, the rather appropriately named waiting room. They seem to have thrown out all their old magazines, and the tv was off, it got rather boring but probably lowers the blood pressure. I did what everybody does, flipped through my phone. Not the sports pages or celebrities for me, I swung by some sewing blogs. I saw Vera from Negligent Style was making some lovely pouch bags. This in turn led me to S.O.T.A.K handmade who has some great free tutorials.

Another hour on and we were eating our tea -  liver and onions and potatoes. There maybe some amongst you who would say to eat liver, you have to take your mind off it. Anyhow, one minute I was eating my liver and onions, and the next the chair was pushed back and I was in the sewing room. By the time my husband had cleared the table and gone to finish his glass of red wine in the garden, I had made a drawstring bag. I know, a glass of wine on a Tuesday night, a bit daring that.  I had joked that to eat liver you need a glass of chianti and some fava beans. Far too scary a film for me, but I did know that famous line. We didn't have any fava beans, but we did of course have a bottle of red wine.

I used the basis of the S.O.T.A.K. tutorial for this, slightly amending the measurements. I used a strip of 4" Alice and 3.5" Alice, with a strip of 4" blue and white zig zag in between. The red zig zag from the inner is the same fabric as the blue. I used the full 10" length of the blue scraps.

The casing for the drawstring is 2.5" folded in half and is, I think, a Tula Pink fabric. The key seems to be to make the casing shorter than the width of the bag width. That's where I have been going wrong all these years! Such a simple thing, but makes the sides so much neater.

The outer fabric is sandwiched, right sides together with the lining fabric. The casing is slotted in between with all the raw edges lined up. The short ends of the casing had already been turned in with a single hem to neaten them off.

Repeat with the other side. Then simply open out two pieces of fabric you have just sewn together  to the double length. Lay this on top of the other sewn piece, and sew these together.

Remember, yes, remember to leave a gag at the bottom of the lining fabrics to turn inside out. Very important that.

Then turn the bag inside out and there you go. The basis of a drawstring bag. Then add your ribbon.  I think I through all my ribbons out, or put them away very safe. I'm not really a ribbon sort of girl, and I never used them. Except on the rare occasion when you needed a piece of ribbon. In the waste not, want not mentality, I decided to use it up and use the selvedge from another piece of the fabric.

I cut it off and folded in the raw edge on one side and the actual selvedge edge on the other and ran a seam of running stitches down it. A safety pin to draw it through and there you go. I like the rough and ready look, so I knotted the ends. He who has the where withal suggested sewing the ends would be neater, but I like to live on the edge. It's how I rock and roll here. He also pointed out I have many drawstring bags, but this was a very nice addition.

By this stage, I had decided I rather like this wee bag. I particularly like the peek of the red lining.

So, sorry, sister. This ain't for you. I have no more of this fabric left, but I will make you a rather nice one with the tea cups from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

 Possibly even before the end of the caravan season! And I have the beginnings of a shawl which will just fit nicely in my new project bag.

I reckon this just fits the brief for the DrEAmi link up. Drop Everything And Make It. So, I will be linking up with those damn squirrels again.

Helen x
linking up with mmmquilts.com
linking up with cookingupquilts.com