Laundry Sack Tutorial

To be truthful, laundry is one of my least favourite things to do. There is not much you can do to make the chore fun. Although there is nothing you can do to make the laundry more pleasurable, you can however use a lovely laundry sack to store your clothes that are waiting their turn for the washer and dryer.

The finished sack measures approximately 21" X 23" and it holds one person's laundry for the whole week. But, if you are anything like me its about 2 days laundry.  My kids just attract dirt.

This bag is not only adorable, but it is handy if you are lacking space for a hamper. You can also tote this on vacation to hold all of your dirty clothes.

The first step is to gather all of your supplies.  Whilst most of my projects are spur of the moment, I used to find my self running round like a blue bottomed fly getting the bits I had forgotten initially.

Picking fabric is part of this step, so have fun and find something eye-catching and colourful!

Here is what you need:

***2 pieces of fabric measuring 24" X 42" (see note below)
***60" of drawstring or cord
***7" length of one-inch wide webbing
***All of the basic like scissors, thread, a fabric marking pen, pins and, of course, a sewing machine.

24" by 42" inches is equal to 2/3 yard of fabric. On my outside piece, I opted to sew two fabrics together in order to make this bag more colourful. I cut one piece (the stripes) 8" X 42" and another piece (the green floral) 17" X 42. The next two steps will show you how to proceed from here. If you are not sewing the two pieces together to make the outside piece for your bag, proceed to step "d".

Sew your two outside fabrics (the stripes and the green floral) together using a 1/4" seam. The fabrics should be right-sides together.

At this point you will need to lay your inside fabric piece against your outside fabric piece (the two fabrics you just sewed together) to see if they are the same size. I ended up having to cut about 1/4" off the bottom of my outside piece. Feel free to cut a little fabric off to make your pieces match up.

Fold your fabric in half lengthwise. On the un-sewn edge by the top of the bag, you will need to mark an area (with your fabric marking pen) where you will not sew. As you can see in the photo, you will mark 1-1/4" from the top edge and 2-1/4" from the top edge. This will be your casing for your drawstring.

Do this on both the inside piece and the outside piece of fabric.

Now you are going to sew the side edge and bottom edge of your bag using a 5/8" seam. You can see in the photo where your markings indicate a place where there is no seam.

Also, leave a 4-5" opening on the bottom of the inside fabric piece for turning.

Iron your seam open. You should have a small opening in your seam

Draw a line (using your fabric marking pen) around your opening. You will sew along this line. This will keep the fabric from coming out of the drawstring opening when you pull on the drawstring.

This is what your line casing opening should look like after you sew around your marked line.

Now, you are going to attach your webbing to the outside fabric piece. You will pin it on the opposite side of the fabric from where your casing opening is.

Allow about 1/4" of webbing to stick up over the top edge of your fabric.

If you are unsure of where to place the webbing, see the next photo.

 

In the photo the drawstring casing is on the right and the webbing is on the left. Make sure your webbing is in the right spot.

Sew the webbing onto the fabric piece using a 1/4" seam

This is how your webbing piece should look after it is sewn onto the fabric.

Now turn your outside piece of fabric right-side out, and the inside fabric piece should be inside-out. Both of the drawstring casings should be facing the same direction.

You will put the inside piece into the outside piece (again, make sure that your casings are on the same side).

Pin the top edge together all the way around.

You should be able to open up your casing as shown in the photo. If you can't, you need to try repositioning your fabrics.

Sew around the top edge of your bag, using a 1/4" seam.

Now you will pull the bag through the 4-5" opening along the bottom edge of your fabric. If you forgot to leave the opening (I do that all the time!) just use a seam ripper to open one up.

Arrange your bag, tucking the inside where it belongs.

Pin all along the top edge of the bag.

To form the casing you will need to sew a seam all around the top edge of your bag. Line up this seam with the top of the sewn line that goes around your casing.  Then do the same thing on the bottom line.

Your casing should look like this.

Tie a knot on each end of your drawstring (this keeps it from fraying). Put a safety pin through one of the knots.

Thread the drawstring through the casing.

And Voila.....You are done! All you need to do now is to find a place to hang your bag. Oh, you might want to get some clothes dirty too!

Excellent tutorial by Randi