My First Project with My Cricut Maker

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I have been contemplating upgrading to the Cricut Maker for a year now.  I finally took the plunge! Isn’t she a beauty?

Amazon has a great price on the Maker, and they have also has many different bundles offering a great value.  My only reason for buying this machine (my third Cricut by the way) was the rotary blade for cutting fabric.  So I couldn’t wait to try it out.  I found the perfect idea for my first project with my Cricut maker on Pinterest.

Check out this tutorial on Polka Dot Chair for making adorable drawstring bags.  Her tutorial is great, but I decided to elaborate a little on her directions to help beginners a little more.  Her bags are lined, which is great but to save time and fabric I opted to not line mine.

I am getting ready for a trip to Hawaii in a couple of months and these travel bags are exactly what I need to keep everyone organized.  I chose some tropical themed prints for myself and older daughters and some more girly prints for my youngest daughter.

What You Need

I used fat quarters I purchased at Joann when they were on sale 10 for $10.00.  I made the extra small and small bags using one fat quarter each.  The larger bag needed two fat quarters (plus a small amount for the casing.) Amazon has some cute fat quarters bundles.  If you want the option of making a larger bag, purchase 1/2 yard of a favorite fabric.

I used ribbon I had on hand for the drawstring.  You can always grab some coordinating spools at Hobby Lobby.  Each bag requires two pieces of ribbon measuring twice the width of the bag plus 8 inches.

Of course, you need coordinating thread.  This is my favorite brand of thread.  I am pretty cheap, but I will always pay more for this thread.  It never breaks on me, and it doesn’t clog my machine with fibers.  The colors are always amazing too!

You will also want a safety pin to feed the ribbon through the casing.

Cutting the Fabric

For the small bag, the tutorial on Polka Dot chair says to cut 2- 8″ x 10″ rectangles for the bag with 1″ squares cut out of the bottom corners, and cut 2 casings 3″ x 8″.  I used Design space to make a pattern and cut it.

 

Place your fabric right side down on the mat.  Select your material and cut. The Cricut Maker cut the fabric beautifully!

You need two of these pieces and two of the small rectangles to form the casing for the drawstring.  Fold in the short edges of the casing 1/2″ and press.  (I use my EasyPress to get nice crisp folds.). Then fold the casing in half lengthwise and press.

Sewing Your Bag

Next, pin the casing piece centered on the bag piece raw edges together and right sides together.

Now, stitch straight across making 1/2″ seam.  Press the seam. Repeat this for both pieces of the bag.  Pin bag pieces right sides together and stitch along the long sides and the bottom edge.

After stitching the sides and bottom, cut the corners off the cut-out.

Pinch the front and back pieces of fabric and pull it apart to line up the bottom and side seams.

These corners will allow your bag to stand up when it’s filled with stuff.

After you have completed both boxed corners, if you are like me and don’t have a serger, finish your seams by trimming them with pinking shears.  This will keep the fabric from fraying and looks nice.

Turn the bag right side out. Fold the casing pieces to the inside and top stitch all the way around.  I used a zig zag stitch.  Be sure to catch the casing pieces on the inside of the bag.

Finally, you are ready to feed the ribbon drawstring through the casing.  Cut two pieces of ribbon that are twice the width of the bag plus 8″.  Attach a safety pin to one side and feed it through on side of the casing and back through the other side so that both ends are sticking out of the casing on the same side of the bag.

Repeat the previous step with the second ribbon.

Finished Bags

I made three different sizes.  An extra small for my youngest daughter’s hair accessories, a small one for charging cords, and the bigger size is for dirty clothes.

Polka Dot Chair adding vinyl sayings to hers, which I contemplated, but I felt the patterns I chose were a little too busy for vinyl words too.

Measurements for the bags I made:

xs 6″ x 8″ rectangles with .5″ x .5″ squares cut out, and 3″ x 6″ casings

small 8″ x 10″ rectangles with 1″ x 1″ squares cut out, and 3″ x 8″ casings

medium 12″ x 16″ rectangles with 1″ x 1″ squares cut out, and 3″ x 12″ casings

Which size are you going to make?  Maybe all like I did?