Hi there. Essy Nuves from GenZmoma Recycled Denim Fashion, coming to you today to talk about
string bags. You can make three different string bags from this pattern. The pattern contains three string
bags, three different sizes. Medium, Small, and Mini. This pattern has a Really fun front pocket and an inside pocket. You can
make it out of Recycled denim, maybe a pair of jeans you don't wear any more. Use two fabrics. Denim for the outer bag
and another light cotton fabric for the lining. The fabrics are fun to mix and match. You can
also pick your own fabrics. These string bags are all lined. They're really
high quality. When you put them together, they go together very easily. This is a very simple pattern
I have put together. This pattern is available in pdf or I can also mail you the printed pattern ready to use.
I now sell the pattern in digital format /pdf or mail out a printed copy to you. They're really good.
They're really easy to follow. They're great to make. If you want to get one, you're
going to have to order it from GenZmoma. I also do other sewing items. Come visit my website and see
what else is available. I have other patterns, which are also very wonderful. The instructions are super easy to follow.
I've enjoyed making these bags and I hope you will, too. So, if you follow along, I'm going to teach you how to make
one. Okay. When you open up your pattern of this string bag, it's going to tell you all the
things that you need to know to make this string bag.
I am using a lining. So, our denim fabric has enough body that you don't need lining but I like to include it as it
provides a nicer aesthetic and adds a nice appeal to a more finished product with the liner fabric of your choice..
I am going to cut out the pattern pieces. You can use the same pattern pieces for all three sizes, using basically
the same patterns pieces, just fold in the ends or top to make it the size you want to make . It's all the same pattern pieces.
Now fold a piece of fabric. I will pin all the pattern pieces of the pattern on the folded fabric and cut them. h
You need to ensure that the pieces that say place on fold are set on fold to cut. You can decide where you want to place the pockets.
You can put the pockets up high, in the middle, or low or you put it one on the outside. So here's two bags. I like the
pocket in the middle I really prefer this style. I used a thin ribbon for the draw string.
I prefer that. The double-sided pulls at each, side works way better, than the drawstring in the middle.
The the draw string on each side works better for the thicker fabrics, like denim.
I recommend that you use the side pull for thicker fabrics, such as denim, canvas or velvet..
For this type of sewing on thick material and this pull string method you use actual strings. You can use half inch material
for the draw string however; I recommend using a heavy duty string, as it will be more user friendly to pull open or to close the bag.
This heavy duty string, it's like a super cording, extra durable parachute cord, and it is perfect for this type of bag.
Anyway, I had it around the house. So, that's what I'm using and I love it.
It's perfect for this bag. We're going to cut out three sizes of this draw string bag pattern. For sizes mini, small, and medium
I will cut these bags out of this one yard of fabric. We are going to cut hte pull string bags out of denim. I will be using a pair of recycled jeans.
xxx of the whale side of the fabric, the other side of the fabric. But for now, I'm just going to show you how I do it.
And you can follow the instructions as much as you want. Go for it. Um, so we have basically we have a
body, a pocket. Um, the top of the
pocket, we have a casing. This is the part that goes around the top. Uh oh,
this is the center pole version. I'm going to delete that for now on what I'm cutting out for reasons that I told you.
Um I think maybe if you have um super lightweight fabric, um go for it. So,
basically, this is all it is. It's one, two, three, four pattern pieces. This
says place on fold. So, the biggest one you're going to want to fold. That's why I folded our fabric. This is a whole
yard of fabric. This is the width and the salvage is here. And I folded this
whole thing over. All the length of the 55 or 6 in that you're going to get out
of our laminate. And so I'm starting with the the main body all the way out.
And there are three different sizes. And I'm going to cut one of each size. And
the way I'll do that is by folding them over each time,
medium, papa bear, mama bear, and baby bear right there. So, what I did, like
when I did the mini, I just pinned them. Okay? So, that's what you're going
to do. You start with the big one and it's basically just these four pieces and then there's a whole bunch of
little things that you put in the edges of the zippers. You're going to put these little bits here and those are
little rect little tiny rectangles. They're that big. So you can get that out of any
little piece of leftover anywhere in your house and especially on your
cutting table. Okay. So, you you take this and
um start laying it out. And then what I do is I'll lay it all out and then I'll
cut them all at once. Okay.
Okay, on the second side, this is the whale fabric and I folded it over so
that this fits. This is the biggest piece. Um, and these are on the fold.
That thing is on the fold. And then I just use these pattern pieces for my second cuts. So, this fits this. This
fits that. The pocket will fit in here because the pocket is only one piece.
The strip that goes along the top will fit there. And you'll cut that out at the same time. You know, you can just
take your pattern pieces and fit them in. After you cut this, you can fold this up a little bit. You know, you just
make this work. This is just piecing. And then you'll have two of every one of
these pieces here. Um, a front and a back, inside, outside,
lining and outside, and then this is the casing. And you want plenty of that.
And as you build the bags, you can mix and match. This one is whales. And then
I put the denim on the top. This one I put just whales on the inside, denim on
the outside. you know, you can um play with how you mix and match the the two
colors together, but have fun with it. Okay, cut these out and then I'll show
you how to sew them. So, I have all the pieces cut out and what you
want to do, we're going to start with the pocket. So, if you look at our pattern, we've done the layout part,
we've done the cutting out, and now we're going to make this pocket. To make this pocket, you want to first do the
zipper. And some people think this is the hardest part, but I'm going to show you how easy it is. Um, she does a very
good job of explaining how to put the zipper pull on the zipper. So, you start with
it feeding into the V side. You're going to feed it down into the zipper pull.
So, the narrower side is at the bottom. And the way you do that is you separate.
You have two 10-in zippers here for the small bag. And you separate out the
bottom of it. You just yank it apart. And so now you have two pieces. And
they're not even cut that well, but it doesn't matter. What you're going to do is feed it in to this side. And I always
like to start on the left for some reason. And then you feed it into the right side.
And then you can actually set it down on the table and give it a little tiny
push from the bottom. You just push the bottom up and it engages. Can you see
that it's engaged at the bottom there? It's engaged there. That
few little teeth have caught. So now it's game on. And you just keep pulling it up.
Okay. So, we're going to start with the first zipper. Um, and what we need for that
is, let's see, these this is the pocket piece. It's just a rectangle.
This is the top of the pocket, but we're starting with a zipper. And you can have this side
together or you can have it separated. Eventually, it's going to get separated. It's kind of handy to have it still
attached here because then you can pull put these edge pieces on. And the way you do that is you just
take them. They're little tiny rectangles. And you're going to put them
down front side, right side, pretty side facing the top of the
zipper. And just sew it. And you want like a 38
seam. I think most of it is 3/8 inch. And I just keep the thread in there and lift up the presser foot and then I turn
the thing around and top stitch. Okay. So, what you want is it
stitched and stitched and then top stitch. Okay. We'll do that on both
sides. And you take the other side. Same thing.
Okay. You're going to do one zipper with um
denim and one zipper with the whale fabric. Trust me, it's going to work.
It's going to be great. So, you you sew both zippers. I
recommend you do that first. And then we're going to take this zipper.
Second step is to add the pocket pieces to it. And you can mix and match. I
actually think it might be really fun to have a little bit of the other contrasting
color. So, I'm going to put You start on one side. Let's
see. I always like to pull my zippers from right to left to right for
some reason and close them going this way. So you can figure out if you care. You
might not care. So start with your zipper over and then in the middle of the seam, we're going to pull it back
through. So this is now it's going to in my case, uh, let's see. It sticks over a
tiny bit. Don't worry about it. Just generally center the top fabric. So I'm putting right sides down.
I'm putting the bottom the whole pocket on first. So,
the bottom part of the pocket is going on first. Now, I have a I don't have a real zipper foot. I just have a narrow
presser foot and that's all I ever use. Oh, I was wrong. I want to start with it
this way. So, I put the zipper pull over here so that it doesn't interfere with me sewing right along the edge of those
teeth. And that's exactly what I do. I sew along
the edge of those teeth. And at some
point, I get to around this middle of it, I put the needle down, I lift up the
presser foot, and I move the pull back. And now it won't interfere with
having a straight seam along this bottom
edge of the zipper. Okay,
now. Okay, there we go. And then cut that off. And I did back and forth at
the ends because you want your bag to stay together, not have any gaping seams.
Okay, now we have one side of the zipper of the pocket is on. Um, and you can top
stitch this one now or you can wait until both ones are on and then top
stitch. So, same thing here. You're going to put this bit, this narrow bit
on the top of the pocket. So, kind of line up the edge of the pocket with the top
thing. So, I stitch the the top
on and I'm running I just can feel where these teeth are. So, I'm running right
the edge of my presser foot is going along those teeth. So, you get to a point where the blob of the zipper pull
is interfering and you're going to slide that to the other
end. You finger press these open
and go ahead and do your top stitching. So, I start at the
top. Push these open. See how this kind of it's kind of a big blob? It kind of gets in the way. So, you just want to
this way, this part doesn't matter so much, but when you're trying to stay at the edge of the zipper and then I run
this um fold of fabric along that edge of my
presser foot. That's how I gauge how big the top stitching is. And I don't like
it to be too close to this edge. I like it to be maybe an eighth of an inch or
so. I like it to be um enough so it holds, you know, it
stitches this back part on the zipper tape on, but
not too close cuz I think it looks and it
kind of gets wobbly if you do it too close. doesn't work out as well as this. I
think that's kind of cute. So, I I did a little mixing up. Perfect. Okay. Now,
next up, do that on both pockets and I'll catch up with
you. Okay. Now, you've put the zipper pulls and the zippers
into both the front and the back pockets like that.
And the next C lining pocket to main bag lining. Now she has you folding up the
bottom and top stitching it. And then you put this pocket all the way up
at the top of the body of the bag. And that will end up like this where the um
inside of the bag has the pocket right up here towards the
top. And I did that for the first two bags. And I'm going to try something different this time. Um, she has the
outside pocket going low on the bag so that probably when you're carrying it,
you could easily reach around and get things out of this pocket here because it's lower down. But on this bag, on the
third bag, what I'm going to try is to put um the
pocket in the middle of the both the front and the back of
the bag. You know, I can never just do anything the right way. Um, but there's
no wrong way. So, I'm going to try this for the third one. um just because I
think it might help with the cinching when this is all closed up since my
zipper I'm using number five zipper and she recommends number four zipper and
four zipper might be a little bit less stiff but mine I'm finding it's
just a little stiff at the top. So for my number five zipper I'm going to move this pocket down a little bit inside the
bag. So, how that looks is
um I'm going to fold over and stitch about a half inch over. And
I'm going to stitch along here. And then I'm going to fold this over and stitch
along there. And then I will attach the bag right here.
So, a little bit up from here, a little bit down from there, and I'll measure that before I
actually do it. So, first I'll take the both bags, top and bottom, and top
stitch down from the back side so I can see where I'm stitching. Right about a
half an inch. And this is going to make this is a nice finish on the bag. It's
going to make it look very professional. Um because you're going to end up with two lines of stitching side by side that
good. I'm going to try two and a half. So, two and a half down from the
sides. And might be smart to clip or pin this.
And what I when I pin it, I just stay out of the margin so that your pin holes are going
to be covered up by a seam later.
But the other thing I like to do more than that is just to eyeball it.
I take two and a half down here, find out where that lands, and I just
can hold it there. Go straight along the
top like that. See, this hangs over just a tiny bit. No big deal.
thing with the other side. I think this bag I'm going to put the denim on the
outside this time just for fun. You know, you can do whatever you
want. It's your bag. You can make it your way. And once you make
one, then you have permission to play. I always think it's good to make the first
one like the instructions and after that you can mix
things up because once you understand it, then you have
license. Um, and these instructions are pretty good. It's a pretty good bag.
This is a great project. I'm really excited that we found this project for
you. I'm excited that we found it for me. I literally have
not done a lot of other people's patterns for years and I'm really
delighted at how well written this pattern is. So, one thing that you can
this side and stitch outside of where your
seam is going to be and then along the
bottom. And see how I just lift my zip presser foot up and then this fabric has
a little bit of give. You can kind of pull it and make it make it go real smooth.
Okay, that's one. See, it's a little tiny bit wavy.
It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. It's good enough. This side, I
didn't stitch both sides, top and bottom on yet. So, I'll
do that. Do the bottom side now. And make sure it's going to line up
over here. This is going to be on the outside now.
Okay, we got the inside and outside. Now, we're going to stitch the sides together. We're going to make the bags.
And all you do for that is fold over right sides together. Pretty sides
kissing. And line up the top and zip it right
down the sides. And I make a very narrow seam. This is probably a 3/8 seam
allowance I got here. And I always double stitch over the zipper just
because I want this bag to last
forever. And now I'll sew down the other side of both bags.
And here you can see. So this is where I stitch the pocket on. And you just want to make sure that your new stitching is
proud of that. So you don't see that stitching in in your
We'll just turn one side inside out. Poke the corners out with your
fingers like that. Put the other bag
that the pockets are on opposite sides of each other. Now we're finishing the
bag. We're going to sew on the casing. And they recommend a key fob. And I
don't know, do you guys like this kind better? This has a little hookie thing. We put these on our Seattle bags. This
is um a ring. And some people like to have a little ring so they can put their
keys on it like this. Right. I think so. Um, but you could do both or you could
do neither or you could do just one or the other. So, I'm going to do this. And
what I do is I'll measure out a couple inches here of um folded
webbing. And I want to seam seal it because you just melt the edges. It's a
nylon and so you melt the edges. And I can kind of melt them and then pinch
them together. And then that makes That's a really good little assembly. Um, and we're going to put
this inside inside this adorable little bag.
The front zipper is here. The inside zipper is back here. So, they're on
opposite sides of the bag. And the key fob will go on the left. And when you
put these two sides together, you'll let the zipper side flop over of the seam
allowance. It'll just kind of naturally do that. I just fold it over. I don't
have to. Since the fabric doesn't unravel, I'm not going to bother with
the step of zigzagging the edge.
So then the key fob will go over
here. And I'll just clip that in. Okay. Now,
um, we have that in. Now, what happens? Stitch webbing. Oh, she wants
me to stitch it on first. Saw stitch that on. And then I'll make I'll show you how. These are the This is the
casing that goes on the top. And I seam sealed it. The uh little key pod thing.
So if I stitch it on, it won't go anywhere. I put this too high. It's really going to interfere. Don't you
think? I'm going to take this off. Sorry.
I put it even with the top of the bag and in their detail it's a little
farther down so that it doesn't interfere. So, I put the key holder on and now I will
do the side pull instructions, which is you take the
casing piece, fold it over, and she has it
twice. So, one is over about a half an
inch. And there again, I do them as a
group. Um, and it's a very professional detail to sew them
twice. So, then it will match the details on the pocket.
stitch. These are your casings that go on the top. and one
goes on the front and one goes on the back. So, what you want to do is sew
them together, wrong sides together. So, this is the casing that's
going to show up on the top of your bag like that. You're going to put your uh ties through it. And you're just going
to sew very close to the edge. Whoa. along
there. So, they showed you clips. You put little clip marks in the middle on
the top. And if you did those, good on you. I'm just going to center
this so that both sides, they go right to the
So, at this point, you want the top of the bag to line
up. You got four pieces, four layers of fabric. You're going to stitch that
down. And you can clip both of them on. I'm just going to start with
one, but you do you. I think it's easier to sew this
from the inside of the bag. And you want it to be a 3/8 seam allowance on
this. Okay. Maybe even a little more. Closer
Okay, see one side is on and you're going to top stitch this
down. Now these little doohickeyies, these are on. And you'll
fold these over and top stitch all the way around
and catch all of this down. Okay, does that make
sense? Okay, this is the point when you would put a label if you have a label to put
on. Our last step is to put the string through. So, I took the biggest safety
pin I have. I keep it just for threading things
through. And so I just um I go through
one side. This one I'm going to loop all the way around. This is how we do our
cinch bags, too. So, if you've been with me for the cinch bag fabric of the month club or if
you've done the cinch bag tutorial, it's the same. And the trick is you have to go
all the way across and these two ends go out this
side, right? And then you're going to take this second
one and go the other way. So come in
from this side where the loop is and start here. And you're going to
go across. Go all the way
around. Now these are too long, which is fine.
So, what you have is a bag that you can cinch like that. It's really cute. Really, really
cute. Go down to your bottom of your bag and from the inside, poke out
corners so that it lays flat. Right? You want them
And so you're going to chop those babies off
um and seal the ends with your
lighter. And what you're going to do is stitch those down. You're going to
stitch it across right there. This is a good use for those. Okay. And then this
one, you want them to be about even so that your bag hangs on your body evenly.
This would make a great kids bag, wouldn't
it? Now, you're going to stitch these down and then I'll come back. Okay. So,
these two sides are stitched down flat like this. Turn the whole thing inside
out and poke this corner out. All the way out.
As much all the way out as you can get. And then you make the
corner. Uh this is where Okay. So, you want these to be as
pokeied out as you can get them. And what you're going to do is stitch across here at about what does she say? Half
inch up. So one inch across. So I'm going to make it more like an inch and a
half or 2 in. And what you want to do is kind of capture I can feel the strings,
my strap strings inside here. And so I kind of want to capture those. I'm just
going to take this over to my sewing machine and sew across there and hold it so that the strap
stays straight along that seam. And then I'm going to do the same thing on this side and sew it across.
It's going to be great. Watch. So, I sewed this little triangle
closed. See? And it's got a little bump in there, but I'm fine with that. Um,
and then turn your bag right side out. And let's see how I
did. So, let's see. Yeah, looks pretty darn good. And so, the strings come out
this right along towards the seam, close to the seam. Um, and then it makes a
nice little box corner on the bottom. And the other side. Yeah, the
other side looks pretty good, too. Even though the stitching was a little bit funky, that's how it even looks better.
So now that's your bag. I hope you all had fun sewing these bags. If you got a
chance to sew all three, um they're different sizes, so they really do function differently. I think of this
one as more as an everyday little purse. I just think it's adorable. It's by far my favorite. Um it has I also like that
I used the strings on this one. I think the ribbons that I tried to use on the others, well, they're adorable, very
cute, not as practical, and the drawstring part of it doesn't work and stay together as well as this one does.
This one is just super simple. They're called string bags for a reason. Um, so
the small one is my favorite. Um, I liked that I put the pocket in the middle of the bag on both inside and
outside instead of one high and one low. Um, that's my only critique about the
pattern is that I would just put the pockets in the same place. This one, um, the pocket was low on the front.
Actually, it works really well here. Um, and this one is high in the back. Not
really necessary. And I was wondering if it made it so that the bag doesn't stay closed, but I kind of think that is um
that's this ribbon doesn't have this one just doesn't work as well. It tends to
flop open, doesn't stay closed as well, but it sure is cute and it's a great size. This is the medium size. Actually,
it's called small, but it's the midsize of the three. This one's huge. This one
could be really an all day day pack. Um, it has so much room. It's really useful.
I like the fact that they're lined. Um, I do like the pockets. I wouldn't use a
ribbon again. But they were super fun to make. The pattern was super easy to
follow, and I think I'll get more green pepper patterns because I think they're very well done. So, hope you have fun
sewing them and happy sewing.
