I have been making these for many years. When I teach sewing lessons it is the first project we make. They are quick and fun. Start with 4 patches either rectangles or squares. The bag holding the liquid soap and lotion bottles was made with rectangles. Pretty sure the others are squares. I use recycled denim jeans, heavy duty duck cloth or upholstery for one side. The other side is usually quilting cotton, polyester, linens, polycotton or whatever other scraps are available.
These patches are 8.5" square, the seam allowance is 1/2" wide with 2" boxed corners. With right sides together straight stitch using a 1/2" seam allowance along one side pivot at the corner and continue stitching a 1/2" seam allowance on the bottom edge, pivot again at corner, then continue stitching a 1/2" seam allowance on the other side to the top reverse stitch to secure seam.
I shortened the stitch length to 2.0 from 2.5 to make it more secure. Reverse stitch at the beginning and end of the seams.
Clip bottom corners.
Finger press or use an iron to press the sides and bottom seams open.
Bring the sides and bottom seams together to make a triangle shape, then mark the boxed seam 2" long 1" away from the centre seam.
Measure, mark and stitch the boxed corners for both bags. Turn one bag right side out. Do not cut the corners off, the extra bulk helps the bags stand upright as there is no interfacing or quilt batting to stabilize the bag.
With right sides together put one bag inside the other and clip the edges together leaving about a 2" opening to turn the bag. Side seams should be open and matching, but it is not essential.
Using a 1/2" seam allowance stitch the bag all the way around except the turning spot. Reverse stitch at the beginning and end of the seam.
Turn your bag right sides out, I use a chopstick to poke out the boxed corners.
Finger press or use an iron before clipping the edges together for the final top edge stitching. I increased the stitch length from 2.0 to 3.0 and changed the thread colour to orange for this one.
That's it, all done. When using orphan 9 patch or other quilting patches I use a 1/4" seam allowance so the quilt patches are the same size as in a quilt. It is easier to make these little bags with 1/2" seam allowance and the added bulk makes them more stable. At times I have used interfacing and quilt batting scraps but that is adding extra steps.
Cotton scraps outside bottom and side view.
Denim outside
Cotton view outside sides and denim inside view.
I use them for thread catchers, sewing notions, soap, mini lens wipes etc.
These are fun to make and inexpensive. Happy stitching all.
