How to make a simple drawstring bag

The drawstring bag is the project we taught more than any other in the workshops, and for good reason: it’s useful, it takes one afternoon, and it teaches you straight seams, a folded channel, and threading a cord, three skills you’ll use forever. Make one for gym shoes, one for toys, one for a bottle of wine you’re giving as a gift. Once you’ve made one, you’ll make a dozen.

This is the simple unlined version. It’s the one to start with.

What you’ll need

• Two rectangles of cotton fabric, about 35cm wide × 40cm tall (a fat quarter is plenty for a medium bag).
• About 1.5m of cord, ribbon, or shoelace for the drawstring.
• Matching thread, fabric scissors, pins, and a safety pin or bodkin for threading the cord.

Cotton is the friendliest fabric here: it presses crisply and doesn’t slip. Avoid anything stretchy for your first one.

Step 1: Cut your fabric

Cut two matching rectangles. The size isn’t critical, make it bigger for a kit bag, smaller for a gift pouch. Press both pieces flat before you start; a wrinkled rectangle leads to a wonky bag.

Step 2: Mark the channel gaps

This is the only fiddly bit, and it’s not really fiddly. On the side seams only, you need to leave a small gap near the top for the drawstring to pass through. Measure 6cm down from the top edge on each side and mark two points about 2cm apart with a pin or chalk. You’ll sew up to the gap, skip it, then carry on.

Step 3: Sew the sides and bottom

Place the two rectangles right sides together (the pretty sides facing each other) and pin. Starting at the top of one side, sew down with a 1.5cm seam allowance, stopping and starting to leave your marked gap open. Continue across the bottom, and back up the other side, again leaving the gap. Backstitch at the start and end of every seam, and at both edges of each gap, so they don’t pull open later. The top edge stays open, that’s the mouth of the bag.

Step 4: Make the drawstring channel

Turn the top raw edge down by 1cm and press, then down again by 4cm and press. This folded-over band sits just above your side gaps. Pin it, then stitch all the way around close to the lower folded edge. You’ve now created a tunnel (the casing) running around the top of the bag, with the two side gaps as openings into it.

Step 5: Turn it right side out

Reach in through the open top and turn the whole bag right side out. Poke the bottom corners out gently with a chopstick or a closed pair of scissors (not too hard, or you’ll push through the seam). Give it a press.

Step 6: Thread the cord

Attach a safety pin to one end of your cord. Feed it in through one side gap, all the way around the channel, and out the same side. Then take a second length and thread it from the opposite gap, all the way round, and out the opposite side. Knot the ends of each cord together. Pulling both loops draws the bag closed, and watching it cinch shut is the satisfying part.

For a single-cord version, thread one cord all the way round and out the same opening; it works but draws to one side. The two-cord method closes more evenly and is worth the extra minute.

Make it your own

• Line it by cutting two outer and two lining pieces and bagging them out, a neater finish with no raw seams inside.
• Add a flat base by boxing the bottom corners (fold each corner into a triangle and sew across) so the bag stands up.
• Use ribbon instead of cord for a softer, prettier tie on gift bags.

Make the simple one first

A drawstring bag is the perfect first real sewing project: useful, quick, and forgiving of slightly wobbly seams. Cut two rectangles, leave the channel gaps, fold the casing, thread the cord. Make the simple one today, and a lined one next week when you fancy a neater finish.