https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/drawstring-gift-bag • Posted by Linda of Nice dress! Thanks, I made it!!
I marked and cut out a circle for the base of the bag using this handy quilting tool, but any drawn circle will do. Just be sure it is 5/8" bigger all around (for the seam allowance) than the base you ultimately want on your bag. I used a chalk pencil to mark the line. For the second piece cut out, I cut a wrap around side piece, the walls of the drawstring bag, as tall as I wanted the bag to be, plus 2" for a casing and plus 5/8" for a hem. I made sure this piece was the same length as the diameter of my circle, plus another 2" for margin of error and seam allowance. Just because I love "margin of error"!
I straight stitched and zig zagged together the short ends of this wrap around piece, making a large tube.
I sewed the circle base to the tube almost all the way around.
I stopped there. Yes, I didn’t want to do the math, so I guessed the length when cutting the second piece, the walls, when I added an extra 2" on. When sewing it on to the circle base, I saw that i had that extra fabric so I stopped sewing it on and sewed up the side seam again in the correct place and cut off the excess seam allowance. There's my "margin of error"! In the end, it all works! Now that my walls were sewn and cut to the right length, I went back to sewing the circle base on.
I sewed double fold bias tape on both the circle seam and the one side seam and the top edge.
Then I turned the top edge down 1", sewing it down along the 1" edge, leaving a 1" gap in that casing for the ribbon to go through. After I threaded the ribbon though, I knotted the ends of the ribbon together and turned the bag inside out. I pulled the ribbon tight and wrapped it around the outside again, just to be fancy!