Kids + Summer Time = Lots of Fun Adventures at our house. It is one of my favorite times of the year and I try to pack my few weeks of summer break (we only get 8 weeks at our house) full of fun adventures. With the weather being hot that means I am often distributing water bottles, and then there are the small snacks they will need, along with my boy always wanting to take some “toy” on their adventure with them. So, what do you put all these little things in? I have come up with a cute drawstring adventure pack.
Here is what you will need to make your own:
2 pieces of fabric 11 1/2 inches by 15 inches
A few scraps of fabric
Heat bond Iron-on Transfer Paper (The kind you can sew on)
An Iron and ironing board
Sewing Machine and matching threads
Ribbon/cording/or thin rope (110 inches)
Fray Check
I will be showing you the tutorial using the flower version of the Adventure Pack since the flower is a little more complex then the dinosaur.
1. You will first cut out 2 pieces of fabric that measure 11 1/2 inches by 15 inches. The width of the bag is 11 1/2 inches and the length of the bag is the 15 inches. All my sewing stitch lengths will be done with a 1/2 inch.
2. Get your Heat and Bond transfer paper and trace a flower and leaves. I free hand drew my flower, but at the end of the tutorial I will have a place you can print out the flower design and trace it onto the heat and bond. The flower is 3 leaves of the same shape just a little smaller each time.
3. Grab your scraps of fabric and iron the Heat and Bond shapes onto your fabric. Here are all my pieces. Then cut the flower and leaf shapes out.
4. Place the flower on the front side of one of the bag pieces. Find where you like it placed best. Remember you will be making a 1/2 inch seam along 3 of the sides and also adding button holes at the bottom of the bag.
5. Take off the paper from the heat and bond and iron the leaves on first.
6. Sew down the two leaves.
7. Then take the paper off the largest flower and iron it on and then sew it down as well.
8. Keep doing this will all 3 layers of the flower until they are all sewn down. It should look similar to this when you are done.
9. Now we are going to sew the bag together. Pin the two bag pieces of fabric together with right sides facing in. Pin 3 of the sides leaving the top of the bag open.
10. You are going to start sewing about 2-3 inches down from the top of the bag. DO NOT start at the very top. This unsewn part is where the casing will be made at the end. If you have sewn it you will be unpicking, and we all know we do not want to do that if possible!
11. Here is my unsewn top part so you can see how much I left. I sewed using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.
12. Iron the stitching open. Even the top part that you did not sew.
13. Make your first casing by folding over twice about 1 inch and pinning it.
14. Then do it to the other side as well. Sew down each side of the casing.
14. It should look something like this when you are done.
15. Turn your bag right side out and iron it flat. Then, you are going to make a button hole on both corners of the bottom of the bag. Make sure it is a good button hole.
16. Use your seam ripper and rip open the button hole and then fray check the fabric you ripped open.
17. Grab the ribbon/cording/rope you are using as the draw string part and also the tool you will use to push the ribbon through with. I am using ribbon on both of my Adventure Packs. Cut two ribbon lengths of 55 inches.
18. Thread your bag through. You will do each side and then tie it at the bottom. Each side you start at the bottom. Thread through the button hole, up through the front casing, through the back casing, then back down to the bottom. Even the ribbon out so it is equal lengths and then tie it off at the bottom. Then do the other side starting at the button hole again. Go up through the front casing, then through the back casing, and back down to the bottom when you tie it off.
20. It should look something like this and when you pull on the ribbon on each side the top should pull closed. Now, you have completed your pack!!
The only thing different I did for my boy version was sewing on a dinosaur instead of a flower. I used the same heat and bond transfer paper method. If you have a cricut you could choose any shape you want. Or sometimes I find different templates online of different shapes. The possibilities are endless.
Dinosaur version.
Happy Summer Adventures
About Todays Post
This are fabulous! I am going to whip some up for my girls to take to the zoo on monday!
This is a darling bag ad looks easy enough to make up a few! Thanks so much for the tutorial!
way cute steph! i need to make one of these for my son!
These are so cute! Thanks for sharing the tutorial with us!
Champion. So so darling.
What a fun bag! I wish I had time to make them for my 4 little guys! I will be filing this one away somewhere in my memory for that day!
Great tutorial. i already have a drawstring bag I was thinking about embellishing, and this is perfect. But my drawstring bag is made out of some synthetic fabric. Would the flower still work? Do you need to use the iron, or can you just sew it on??
These are so adorable. I love the flower applique. The use of the buttonhole is brilliant!
You do not have to iron it on is just holds it there for you better. If you are able to just sew it on then it would work, it just would not be as strong and might slip around a bit more for you. I hope that helps!