Drawstring Bag

I made fabric letters the other day for a friend's little boy and wanted something fun to store them in.  So what did my brilliant mind come up with?  A drawstring bag.  I know, super original.  I had never made a drawstring bag before, but I only made one mistake while sewing it.  I call that a success.

I suppose it would be a lot easier to make a drawstring bag out of one big piece of fabric.  But where's the fun in that?  And I kind of wanted to keep with the "rainbow colors" theme of the fabric letters, so I did a little extra sewing.  Honestly, I don't really remember the dimensions for my bag.  I just piled the letters on top of the piece of fabric and it looked like a good fit so I went for it.

Step 1: Sew some strips of fabric together to make a larger piece.   How's that for vague instructions?

I decided to make the top of the bag  (where the drawstring goes) a different fabric.  I did this because I thought it would be easier to make and thread the drawstring tube without all the seams from the colored fabric getting in the way.

Step 2: Fold one of the long edges over about a 1/4 inch and sew it in place.

Step 3: Make a little hem on the short ends of the fabric.  If you look closely at the picture, you can see the hem is kind of triangular so that there's room for that little drawstring-closure dealy when the bag is finished.  Also if you look closely, you'll see the mistake I made.  I sewed the tube for the drawstring before hemming the short edges.  I'd like to say I noticed the mistake quickly, but that would be a lie.  I had completely sewn the tub and had the fabric in my sewing machine ready to hem those edges when I realized that would actually sew the tube shut.  Genius.  Pure genius.

Step 4: Then fold the long edge (the one that you hemmed in step 2) over about 1 1/2 inches and sew in place (this is the tube for the drawstring, so adjust the width as necessary for your string).

Ta da!  You have a tube for your drawstring!

Step 5: Attach the drawstring piece to the rest of the bag, sew the bottom and sides up, thread the drawstring through, attach the drawstring closure thingy and you're done!

Here's the finished product!