Embroidered Laundry Bag
Project Creator: Corrie Sebire
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: INTERMEDIATE
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The linen I used for this bag is by MoMo for Moda and so beautiful. It’s nice and thick which gives the bag and also the stitching a bit of support.
You can use any fabric but I find a good quality quilting cotton or linen/cotton blend or a cotton canvas works really well when you are embroidering the font and using for a more durable bag.
Tools
> Rotary cutter, ruler and mat (or scissors)
> Sewing machine
> Regular sewing thread
> Pins and sewing supplies
Materials Required
> About 80cm of fabric (112cm wide)
> Embroidery thread for your machine
> Medium weight tear away stabiliser if you doing machine embroidery
Step 1:
Cut your fabric for the bag. I use my rotary cutter, ruler and mat to get a nice neat rectangle. For this sized bag I used about 60cm (about 24 inches) x width of fabric. Trim off the selvages
Step 2:
Cut a 2 inch strip of fabric going across the width of the fabric which we will use for the bag tie later on.
Step 3:
Attach tear away stabiliser to the wrong side of your fabric where you want the embroidery. I used my medium embroidery hoop (my machine came with 2 and this is the smaller of the 2) and a piece of stabiliser just a bit bigger than my hoop. If you are using a lighter weight fabric then you might like to double up the stabiliser to give more support to your embroidery work.
Step 4:
I like an iron on stabliser that is tear away which means it just tears away from my work when I’ve finished. This is what it looks like after I quickly ripped off the excess stabiliser. Just those little bits to remove and a few threads to trim but very neat.
Step 5:
Attach hoop to fabric with the stabiliser and a little tip is to have the excess of your fabric to the right away from the end of your embroidery arm. Take your hoop to your machine.
Step 6:
Select the font you want, if I wanted to use the font in large letters then I would have needed the bigger hoop (and I’d already hooped up my fabric and stabiliser) so I used medium font and upsized it a little.
Step 7:
Now let the machine do the work.
Step 8:
Remove the hoop and stabiliser and let’s work on the rest of the bag. At the iron press over the tie fabric once across the width of the fabric and then open up and press each end in towards the centre line. Press again.
Step 9:
Fold over one side to the other and press well along the tie.
Step 10:
Create a pocket for your tie. Start by tidying up our edges. Fold over the top of the side edge of your fabric a little bit and a little bit again and press well. Repeat on the other top side of the fabric top.
Step 11:
Now press over the top of the fabric going right along the top edge of the fabric by a little bit. Press over again by a width that is more than your finished tie/ribbon/binding folded over.
Step 12:
At the sewing machine you are going to sew your tie from one end to the other. Set aside.
Step 13:
Now we are going to sew the top of the bag, with the needle in the needle left position sew from one end to the other. Trim threads. You want to sew as close to the folded over edge as you can being sure that you sew through it so take it slow if you need to.
Step 14:
Now with right sides of the fabric together you are going to pin the side and bottom of the bag together. Sew from just at the bottom of where you created the opening for your ties and sew down the side of the bag and then across the bottom of the bag. Zig zag or overlock edges to prevent fraying.
Step 15:
Now take your tie and put a safety pin in one end and a pin in the other. The safety pin will help you push through the tie and the pin will stop the other end from getting lost in your tie casing.
Step 16:
I tie a knot in each end of the tie and trim the excess fabric. Voila the bag ties are done
