Three crafts in one bag

I was going to go out today, but it’s cold and wet, so instead I spent the morning turning the fabric I weaved yesterday using my handspun yarn into a bag. I used the same method I used for the little bag I made a while ago, I did take some photos as I went along, so whilst this isn’t a tutorial it gives an idea what I did.

First I backed the woven fabric with some stiff iron on interfacing, and found a couple of neutral fat quarters to use for the lining.

I cut the corners of the lining to make the bottom corners, sewing one and leaving the other one to pull it the right way out at the end.

I didn’t like to cut the woven fabric, so I just sewed the corners of the outer fabric and left them.

Next I made the handles and button loop from the same fabric as the lining, I used interfacing to make the handles stiffer. For the green bag I pinned them in place whilst I sewed the lining to the bag, but this seemed more fiddly with the stiffer fabric, so I sewed them in place first.

Then I slipped the whole thing inside the inside-out lining, and sewed round the top before pulling it through the inside corner, and then topstitched round the top to hold the lining down and give another line of sewing to hold the handles.

This is the lining all in place.

And the nice square corners.

The fabric was 23” x 13”, the bag is 9” high, with the base being 8.5”x4”. The handles are 20” (this was entirely influenced by the length of fabric left after making the lining, they’re long enough to go over my shoulder, but I might have made them a couple of inches longer if I’d had more fabric).

Overall I’m very pleased with it – my first handspun, handwoven and hand sewn project!