Drawstring Bags

We worked on drawstring bags yesterday. I'd poked around and come up with a design along the lines of the bottom of a grocery bag (or L.L. Bean Boat & Tote bag). After dinner we started prototyping. I cut, marked, and punched holes, Ron ran the sewing machine. Click to embiggen pictures.

Bags 1 and 2 

We decided that the construction method worked fine for the big bag, but not for the small one. It would work fine for the smaller bag in fabric, maybe with thinner/softer garment leather, but not so well in the leather we were using, which was more upholstery-weight.

Unfortunately, while folding over the top edge to make the casing for the drawstring looks good, with this leather there was just no way to pull them shut.

This is the larger bag, after Ron heaved on the drawstrings. I couldn't get it this far.

Bags 3, 4, and 5

These bags are all made flat, with simple holes for the drawstrings.

Bag 3, on the left, doesn't have enough rounding-off of the corners.

Think think, think think think . . . grab a template for something else. Make bag 4, center. Some wobblies on sewing around the bottom, but better!

Flip the template around to try a smaller version, bag 5, on the right. Better yet!

The nice thing about 4 and 5 are that layout is done mostly using a template for a hard pouch back - the flap for the smaller bag, the body for the larger bag. Multi-use tools FTW.

We have our drawstring bag designs: The large flat-bottomed bag, and flat bags 4 and 5 (with minor modifications for small and medium sizes. I can start cutting for production tonight.