DIY Hand Bag
Have you ever felt like you bring your whole house in your diaper bag? There are some occasions where I feel like I am lifting weights with how heavy can get. Sometimes you just need an extra hand bag!
I keep my extra hand bag laying around for those occasions where I know I’ll need reinforcements! Entertaining reinforcements! I have pre-packed books, crayons, cars, and of course snacks into my DIY Hand Bag!
It only took me about 30 minutes to put together and I ended up using fabric I already had! So it was extremely cheap and easy, which makes the reward all the better!
First, decide how big you want your bag. I wanted it big enough to put books in, but realistic in carrying all the other stuff I need. Next, decide the configuration of your bag; do you want it to turn inside out? Do you want pockets? Do you want two handles or one? Do you want any fun different color panel? Those are all easy fixes, you just have to decide what kind of bag you want.
I ended up deciding a 10”x 10” bag with a 4” side panel, with one strap, and only two different colors (one fabric for the outside and one fabric for the inside. It looks like this:
Needed Supplies:
– cutting mat and rotery cuter
– sewing machine, serger if possible {For those of you doing the Learn to Serge Series, USE YOUR SERGER! :)}
– 1/4 yard of outside fabric
– 1/4 yard of inside fabric
– 1/8 yard of strap fabric
– 1/4 yard of interfacing (just find heavyweight to make the bottom and strap a little more sturdy)
You will have extra fabric, those are just rough estimates.
Cut:
– 2 pieces of 11” x 11” (for both inside and outside fabric)
– 3 pieces of 5” x 11” (for inside fabric, outside fabric and interfacing)
– 2 pieces of 3″ x 15″ (for strap fabric, and one piece of interfacing)
Remember to cut the other fabric as well, I have mine stacked on top of each other:
(if you want any pockets, remember to cut those out now. If you need a little more detail on how to do a pocket, check out my diaper bag tutorial it goes into a lot of detail on how to put in a pocket)
Steps:
1. Cut out fabric
2. With right sides together you are now going to piece the bag together. Best to start with the bottom panel. Match it (right sides together) to one of your front or back panels. Serge if you can, if not, sew a zig zag with a 1/2 seam allowance.
3. This is what it will look like:
4. Do the same thing to the other front or back panel
5. Now add the side panels to the bottom panel. It will look like this:
6. With precision, serge (or sew) the four sides together.
7. You might run into the problem with your serger where you can’t get close enough and it leaves a little hole (like this:)
Just turn it around and serge back down to close up that hole.
8. You should have a bag now. Serge around the top edge of your bag to clean up the edges.
9. Leave a 1/2 seam allowance, hem top edge of bag. All you have to do is turn the serged edge over and topstitch. Some people like to use an iron for this step. You can, all you would have to do is serge the top edge, fold your seam allowance and iron that (it helps to keep the seam allowance in place). If you are comfortable enough with just holding your seam allowance while sewing/heming you don’t need to iron.
10. Make your strap. With right sides together (remember to include your interfacing) serge three sides.
11. Flip around so wrong sides are together with the interfacing on the inside. Close up the edge (By sewing).
12. Sew the strap on the bag with your double needle, matching the stitches of your hem.
13. Fill your bag! 🙂 This is the fun part!
The best part was that it was fast, and free for me because I used scrap fabric. I caught my son in a good mood because he ended up just reading books while I sewed. So stinking cute… I love being a mama and watching him 🙂
I can’t wait for you to put your bag together. Tell me how it turns out, I love seeing your projects too! I hope it will simplify those occasions when you need that extra hand bag for all those fun toys! 😉
