Project bags – a knitter’s best friend and trusty companion.
They’re adorable, incredibly practical and so much fun to sew!
I’ve been making my own project bags for a while now and eventually happened to create what to me is the perfect bag for small projects.
In the spirit of its unique and adaptable nature I called it:
The Wildflower Project Bag
If you’re looking for a sewing pattern to make a both practical and pretty project-bag, using affordable materials and is easy to make, you found the right post!
In this post, I’ll be showing you how to sew the bag, including a free, printable pdf pattern.
(I tried to make it beginner friendly, so please excuse that this post is quite wordy ^^’)
The Wildflower Project Bag is the product of all the things I want in a good project bag, combining aesthetics with praticallity.
It’s a round bottom, drawstring-bag with pockets to hold all your tools and plenty of space to hold 1-2 100g skeins of yarn.
I especially like to use it for knitting socks, but it also works wonderfully for crocheting amigurumi, as the pockets and bucket-shape make it easy to keep multiple small skeins of yarn, hooks, needles and embroidery-floss organised.
Materials
– Fabric (choose whatever fabrics you like/have on hand)
– Iron-on Interfacing (Optional)
– Cotton cord or an alternative drawstring (about 150cm)
– Thread
– Tag (Optional)
– Iron
– Fabric scissors
– Tailor’s chalk or washable fabric pen
– Measuring tape or ruler
– Sewing machine (Optional if you want to sew by hand)
– Sewing needle
– Printed copy of the sewing pattern (Optional)
You can download the free, printable PDF-sewing pattern for the Wildflower Project Bag by clicking on the link above.
If you don’t have access to a printer, you can measure out the pattern pieces yourself. You’ll find all the measurnments for the pattern pieces in the paragraph below.
Choosing And Cutting The Fabric
For the Wildflower Project Bag, you’ll need three different fabrics:
– the main fabric for your outer bag
– fabric for the lining
– a second lining-fabric in a contrasting- or complimentary colour to your main lining-fabric
For my bags, I’m using thick, course canvas as my main fabric and regular, printed cotton fabric for both of the lining fabrics.
However, you can also use regular cotton or thinner canvas as your main fabric.
When using a thick fabric as your main fabric, the iron-in interfacing is optional.
If you can’t use a printed copy, here are the measurements for all the pattern pieces:
Piece A (Sides): 30,7cm x 17,5cm
Piece B (Bottom): a circle with a 19cm diameter
Piece C (Pockets): 30,7cm x 19cm
Piece D (Drawstring): 31,7cm x7cm
Piece E (Loop): 10cm x 6cm
Contrast/Complimentary Lining-Fabric
– 1x piece C
– 2x piece D
Main Fabric:
– 2x piece A
– 1x piece B
– 1x piece E
Interfacing:
(optional)
– 2x piece A
– 1x piece B
Main Lining-Fabric:
– 2x piece A
– 1x piece B
In this post, we will go straight to the sewing part.
If you want to add embroidery to your bag, there’s a separate post on how to do that, including my process for making my own designs to match the fabrics of my bags.
Hi, I’m a link to that post!
When using interfacing, iron the pieces onto the back side of the matching pieces of your main fabric. If (as is the case for the fabrics I’m using here) your main fabric is very course and the interfacing won’t propperly adhere to it, you can also adhere it to your lining pieces instead.
How To Sew The Wildflower Project Bag – Instructions
The PDF -pattern and measurements already include seam allowance on each piece.
– When sewing, sew with your presser foot aligned with the edge of your fabric unless specified otherwise in the instructions. This will leave you with a 5-8mm seam allowance.
– Make sure to neatly press your seam allowances with an iron after sewing a seam, to ensure a tidy and professional looking outcome.
– When the instructions say “fold and press” it means to fold the fabric according to the instructions given, then press the fold down using an iron.
Step 1 – Assembling The Outer Bag
We’ll start by sewing the loop that’ll be sewn into the side seam of your outer bag.
For this, take your main fabric Piece E (Loop).
– Fold and press about 5mm of each long edge towards the wrong side of the fabric
– Now fold the piece in half lengthwise and press again
With the piece folded like this, sew along both sides leaving about 3-4mm from each edge.
The “wrong side” of the fabric referes to the back side of it.
The “right side”of the fabric is the side you want to be visible in the finished piece.
Now we assemble the outer bag.
For this, take one Piece A (Sides) in your main fabric with the right side facing up.
(If you embroidered one of your pieces, use the embroidered one.)
– Fold the loop you just made from Piece E (Loop) in half and place it right on the left edge of Piece A (Sides), leaving 3cm towards the top edge
– If you’re adding a tag, place it below the loop, 3,5cm from the bottom edge
– Place your second main fabric Piece A (Sides) on top with the right side facing down, so that the tag and loop are sandwiched in between
Place the tag with the plain side facing up. This will ensure, that the printed side will be pointed towards the front of your bag after sewing.
– With both Pieces A (Sides) aligned along all edges, pin everything in place and sew along both sides, leaving the top and bottom open
You can turn your work to check if it’s neat.
If you do so, turn it back inside-out so that the right sides are facing each other again for the next step!
To attach the bottom, open up the tube you just sewed and pin your main fabric Piece B (Bottom) to the bottom edge of your bag, right side facing down.
Align the raw edges all the way around.
– Sew around the edge
– Cut some notches into your seam allowance all the way around
For the notches, cut a little V into your seam allowance every 3-4cm, leaving only about 2mm between the seam and the tip of the V.
Turn your work inside out.
Your embroidery, loop and tag should be on the outside of your bag and all the seam allowances on the inside.
Now we add top stitching along the bottom of the bag for extra structure.
– Pin your bottom seam allowance down to the bottom of the bag (formerly known as Piece B (Bottom))
– Top stitch over the bottom side, directly next to the edge
This can be quite fiddly, so be sure to take your time and be careful not to catch another part of your bag in your seam.
Step 2 – Assembling The Lining
The lining is started by sewing the pockets.
– Take your contrast/complimentary lining fabric Piece C (Pockets) and fold and press it in half lengthwise
– Top stitch along the folded edge about 5mm from the top edge
– Copy the vertical lines on the pattern piece onto the folded Piece C (Pockets)
If you’re not using the printable pattern, the lines go as follows:
– In a 90 degree angle down from the folded edge, draw a line 3cm from one side of your piece
– Draw the next line parallel to the one you just drew, leaving 2,5cm in between the lines
– Repeat the last step one more time
Do the same on the other side of your pocket piece as well.
– Place your Piece C (Pockets) on the right side of one of your lining fabricPiece A (Sides), aligning the bottom and side edges
– Sew along all the pocket lines
To customise your pockets just switch up where you draw and sew the lines to suit your purpose.
Now we assemble the lining in almost the same way we did for the outer bag:
– Place your second lining fabric Piece A (Sides) on top of the one you just worked with, so that the right sides are facing
– Sew along the left and right edges
! Leave a gap of at least 6cm in one of these side-seams as a turning gap !
– Open up your sewn piece and pin your lining fabric Piece B (Bottom) in place with the right side facing towards the inside
– Sew around the edge
Opposed to the outer bag, the lining is not top stitched along the bottom
Step 3 – Drawstring Tunnel
To make the drawstring tunnel, we’ll do the following instructions with both of the contrast/complimentary lining fabric Pieces D (Drawstring).
– Fold and press 5mm of both short edges of your Piece D (Drawstring) towards the wrong side of the fabric
– With the edges still folded, fold and press them 5mm towards the wrong side again, so that the raw edge is folded up on itself
– Sew over the folded edge leaving an equal distance to either sides of the fold
Now, fold and press both Pieces D (Drawstring) in half lengthwise.
Step 4 – Assembling The Bag
With all your pieces prepared and ready, it’s time to assemble the bag.
First, take your outer bag and drawstring tunnel pieces.
– With the drawstring pieces folded up, pin them to the outside of the outer bag, aligning the folded edges with the side seams of the outer bag
To make assembly a bit easier, you can secure your pieces in place at this point, by sewing around the top edge leaving a seam allowance of less than 5mm.
However, I find this makes neatly pressing the seam allowance a bit harder, so I only do that when using especially slippery fabrics.
With the lining turned right side facing towards the inside of the bag, put the outer bag into the lining one, so that the right sides are facing each other.
Make sure to align the side seams of the outer bag with those of the lining.
– Sew around the top edge
– Turn your bag right side out using the turning gap left in one of the side seams of the lining
If you forgot to leave a turning gap, you can carefully unpick part of one of the side seams of your lining. Just be extra careful when turning, to not rip the whole seam open.
Arrange the lining neatly inside the bag.
Since your bag is probably pretty scrunched up and wrinkly at this point, from squeezing it through the turning gap, neaten it up using an iron before continuing on.
This works best when laying the bag on its side and ironing from the inside of your bag, then turning the bag just a bit at a time over and over, till you ironed all the way around.
Now is the time to check for mistakes and
if your Wildflower Project Bag is coming out the way you want it to.
If you find any gaps in your seams (apart from the turning gap) or other things you’d like to correct, this is your last chance to do so, before we’ll lock everything in place with a topstitch.
Top stitch around the top edge of your bag below the drawstring tunnel, leaving about 4-5 mm towards the tunnel.
Step 5 – Finishing
Sew your turning gap closed using either a ladder stitch or your sewing machine.
Thread your cord or alternative drawstring through the tunnel.
It’s up to you how you like to thread your drawstring.
For this bag, I used two pieces of flat cotton cord (About 65cm each) and threaded them through both sides of the drawstring tunnel, so that both end of one piece of cord are coming out on the same side of the bag.
I repeat that for the other piece of cord, starting at the opposite side to where the ends of the first one come out, then tie the ends of each cord together.
It also looks really cute when you use only one piece of cord (about 80cm long) and thread it through the tunnel so that both ends come out on the same side of the bag. Don’t tie the ends.
To close a bag like that, simply tie the ends into a bow while pulling tight, so that the bag is pulled closed.
Aaaaand Done!
Enjoy your new Wildflower Project Bag!
Thank you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to look at, read about and maybe even sew the Wildflower Project Bag!
It really means the world to me that you chose to spend your precious time, effort and materials on making one of my designs!
This is the first sewing pattern I ever published and it’s also the first one I ever made into a digital/printable pattern and wrote a tutorial for, so I hope it turned out actually usable.
I’m sure I made a looooot of rookie mistakes and it’s always great to learn and grow as a designer/pattern maker, so any feedback is highly appreciated!
If you have any feedback or questions, please leave a comment under this post or send a mail to wildflower-fibercrafts@protonmail.com
I’m so happy you stumbled across my tiny little corner of the internet and I hope that with this bag, you find that it was worth a visit!
If you need inspiration for what project to make using your new project bag, this link will take you to a knitting pattern I released a few weeks ago, called the Cottage Coin Pouch.
It’s a free PDF pattern as well.
This pattern took a lot of time and work to turn into something hopefully cohesive and I really hope you enjoyed it!
It is meant to bring functionality and fun into the lives of makers and I offer it here for free, to try and make it as accessible as possible, regardless of wether or not someone has the means to purchase a payed pattern for their craft on top of all the materials we go through as makers. So please don’t steal or use it to mass produce these bags and profit off of my passion-project!
Thank you for treating other’s creative work with respect! <3
And thank you again a million times for using something I made to create your own unique piece!
May your days be filled with the joy of making and all the project bags you could ever want
Have a wonderful week!
Snowdrop