How to make a drawstring favour bag

These little bags are doing it's rounds at weddings, baby showers, and kitchen teas as cute little bags to put a favour in for the guests to say thanks.  They are so pretty that you can almost give them as is with a message or a picture stamped on them and a mint in them.

This is just a basic tutorial on how to make the drawstring bag with the least effort.  In a next post I'll give you ideas of what to do with them to make them look even prettier.

What you will need:
Scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Material of your choice (depending on how big your bags will be but for a bag 15 x 12 cm you will need 34 x 25cm piece of material)
Drawstring (rope or ribbon)
Safety pin
Sewing machine

To work out the amount of material you will need, first decide how big you want the bags to be (or what you want to put in it).  I made these 15 cm x 12 cm - which is a good size for a few sweeties, a lollipop, a cookie cutter, a roll of washi tape ect.

What you will do is to double the size of the piece you need, thus 15 x 12 cm = 30 x 24 cm

Then add 0.5 cm for the hems on each side = 31 x 25 cm

Then you will need 3 cm length wise (1.5 cm folded double) for the casing for the drawstring.  I used a thin cotton rope for the drawstring, but I do suggest if you would like to use anything like a rope that you increase this measurement = 34 x 25cm for one bag.

You can now do the math if you would like to make more bags, or bigger ones.

I like ironing in the hems so that it makes life easier when folding.

1. Iron a 0.5 cm hem on each side of the piece of material - both sides, top and bottom.

2. From the top 0.5 cm hem, fold over 1.5 cm and pin it down as in picture below.  The side hems should be folded in, see picture. Now sew straight through from the one side to the other side on the line of the 0.5 cm hem that you have pinned. You have now created the casing.

3. On both sides, lift the top hem up and cut the side hem so that you can open it up as in the picture below.

4. Fold the piece of material in two with the two sides together, and pin it on the hem that you have ironed on the sides as well as on the bottom.  Sew or overlock on this hem line.

5. Turn inside out, and just give it a few stitches to and fro just below the casing to reinforce it.

6. Using a safety pin, tread the rope through the casing.

7. Knot the two ends of the rope together

There you have your very basic drawstring bag. Now you can decorate it with stamps or fabric paint.  Just remember to put a piece of board inside the bag before stamping or painting to make sure that it does not seep through the material.