SEWcial Distancing: How to make a DIy bag

This weeks SEWcail Distancing project is make a bag from fabric and plastic bags. By bonding the the plastic bag to the scrap fabric, you can turn the plastic bag into a super cute, upcycled accessory.

Step One:

Draw around the bag pattern with pen onto the fabric. Get your plastic bags and cut them, play around with them and decide on the pattern you want to create.

Step Two:

Place the plastic bags (right way up) onto the fabric, put a piece of baking paper on top. The baking paper will ensure your plastic doesn’t melt and stick to your iron. Using the iron, press over the layers of fabric. Use pressure and do this slowly to melt the plastic. Leave this to cool before carefully pealing off the baking paper. Don’t worry if areas have not melted properly, just go over them again with the iron and baking paper until they have stick - this may take a few gos. If you are doing a layers, do one layer at a time a build it up. Be careful not to burn yourself and make the sure it has cooled down, before pealing off the baking paper.

TIP: the plastic will shrink as it melts to make sure the plastic bag shapes are larger than the net of the bag you have drawn on the fabric.

Step Three:

Once you have bonded the plastic bag to the fabric, cut out the shape of the bag. Either pin the pattern back down or follow the lines you drew on earlier. Pin the side of the bag together and hand stitch together. I used a visible blanket stitch as its decorative or you could do a circular stitch around the edges. Stitch all four sides together and fold the narrow sides of the bag inwards to create a crease.

Strep Four:

Stitch around the opening of the bag - if some of the plastic is peeling away from the fabric, don’t worry, you can just repress it down before you hand stitch.

Step Five:

Draw around the two bag straps onto the scrap fabric and repeat the process of bonding the plastic bags to the fabric. Again, make sure you use baking paper under the iron so the plastic doesn’t melt and stick to the iron. When you’ve created the straps, cut them out and hand sew them to the bag opening. Fold across the top of the handles so they fit in your hand. And then, you’ve finished your bag! Click here to get a kit so you can make this at home.