A drawstring bag for my weaving bits and bobs

My new loom arrived in a massive box. Inside it, along with a second heddle, were shuttles, cardboard strips, instructions etc. I’d put all of these things onto a shelf in my craft cupboard (this isn’t what it started off being for, but it now, most definitely, is a craft cupboard) but I was a bit concerned about losing some vital part - like the threading hook for instance. As I was also looking for useful projects to make with my sewing machine, a bag to put all the weaving odds and ends in seemed like a good idea. And as it was going to need to be a long bag, it seemed like a good “Get to know your sewing machine” project.

A few years ago someone bought me a sarong. I’d never used it and so had put it into the pile of things to go to the charity shop during a recent sort out. However, when discussing my plans with Richard, he suggested that this might make a good fabric for a drawstring bag. He was right. The bag needed to be long enough to hold a 25” heddle, and wide enough to store an exercise book (where I make my notes). I aimed for 30” x 11” and cut out the two patterned areas from the sarong comfortably, and used my new A3 cutting board, metal ruler and rotary cutter to get some lovely, smooth edged pieces of fabric to work with. I also then cut two 30” x 2” strips for the ties. There is still some of the fabric left as well and it’s now in my fabric bag waiting for another project to come along.

I followed this tutorial for the majority of the bag (I didn’t really have enough nice fabric to line it), switching to this one for instructions on how to make the fabric ties. Both were really clear and detailed.

I double stitched the edges - first using a zig zag stitch, and then a normal running stitch. Partially to give it extra strength, partially for the extra practice. This all went pretty smoothly. The biggest struggle was wrestling 30 inches of bag to try and sort out the gusset. One side is pretty straight:

but the other is well off centre:

Overall, though, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. The ties could be top-stitched a little more evenly, and the lines around the top of the fabric at the bottom of the drawstring pocket could have been straighter but all in all, not a bad effort. And a great use of fabric that was about to be thrown away too.