Thursday, February 5, 2009

Pillowcase Bag: a sort of tutorial


Yesterday, on a whim, I set out to make the pillowcase bag that I included in my Crafty To Do List. Martha has lots of great ideas, but her instructions leave something to be desired. I decided to take a few pictures and videos to make it easier for anyone else who wants to make one. It is really quite easy and took me about 45 minutes start to finish.


Start with a pretty pillowcase spread out flat on your cutting mat. Cut 1/4 inch off the bottom (the closed end)


Next you are going to cut the pillowcase in half diagonally - doesn't matter which diagonal, just pick one.


This is the part that kind of confused me. You are going to fold over and pin the 4 diagonal cut edges. Martha suggests a double fold of 1/4 inch, but that is too difficult and not really necessary so I just did one fold of about 1/2 inch. You can see two of my edges in the above picture and I did the same thing to the diagonal edges of the other half.


Sew all four hems. Again you are sewing the diagonal edges here.


After all four edges are hemmed you are going to place one half inside the other. This is sort of confusing so here is a video to assist.


is that clear? i hope so.


As I mentioned in the video you are now going to sew along the outside diagonal edges. This will rejoin the two halves. You can see above that the two are joined. You have to do this once on the front of the bag and again on the back outside diagonal edge.



This video reinforces the previous step and also the last few steps. 1. Turn the bag inside out and sew along the bottom - this closes up the bottom of the bag so your stuff doesn't fall out! 2. Turn it right side out again and knot the top.


Go places with your new bag! I think this turned out cute, but I'm not as in love as I'd hoped to be. Jess suggested some ric-rac...what do you guys think??

14 comments:

jenni said...

thank you for explaining it! I like it a lot and now it makes sense. I think rick rac would be cute. It seems like a great spring bag but not as sturdy as other bags. I wonder if you could create a pocket of sorts with the inside flaps?

Flassie's Fil'a said...

Oh, I think the rick rac
would be a nice touch!

It is darling!

Thanks for the tutorial!

God Bless You and Yours!!!

Small Fry and Co. said...

I love this idea. thanks for sharing. There are all kinds of things you could do to embelish it. I think I am going to try it out.

koala brains said...

Ohmigosh - that's too funny. I have the EXACT same sheets that I picked up at a thrift store. Where did you get yours? I absolutely love it and made so many things with it that you can actually find in my blog under "sewing". I have 2 pillow cases I was saving to do just this using Martha's directions but glad I found yours since it is clearer. Thanks!

Anne said...

Very cute bag! I blogged your tutorial over at Craft Gossip Sewing Blog:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-sew-this-simple-bag-from-a-pillowcase/2009/02/10/

Celia said...

Great idea!!!!!

Anonymous said...

very cute! i just made mine, and it only took 30 min. thanks for explaining!

Erika said...

I am personally not a big fan of ric rac, but it might be cute! I have a pillowcase I have been coveting for a while now. I may use your tut to make it tonight! Yours turned out really cute!

Peg Graham said...

Add a large fabric Rose to match the fabric...pin it on.

Mrs. Ranney said...

Your directions are the best I've found. I saw this several years ago in a magazine. Then, when I wanted to make it, of course, I couldn't find the magazine. Now I'm going to make several and give them to family and friends.
Thank you!!

Unknown said...

Thanks for these beautifully simple instruction to making this novel bag. This is my first sewing project since laving school (25years ago!!) and it just worked and still took less than an hour. Videos were very handy for the tricky bits. This bag is perfect to sell on a charity fund raising stall. I can only thank you again.

Anonymous said...

I bet if you changed the pattern you cut when you are cutting the diagonal, you'd have more room and a longer strap. Instead of going in a straight line, i wonder, would it work if you curved the line? It seems like it would give the shoulder/arm more room between your armpit and the opening of the bag!

thewrightfamily said...

thanks for sharing, I have made two for my girls rollerskates and they are very happy.

Unknown said...

I know this is an old post but.... there is no video. :>( what happened? I really wanted to make some of these to take to Aldi's