DIY: Pretty Laundry Bag

God bless the laundry room! If you have ever lived without one in your home (as I did for years),
I know you feel me. I am not one who is going to put a chunk of change toward beautifying a laundry room. I keep it organized and whatnot but I don't ever think anyone will stop to "oooohh and ahhhh" over my laundry room. That being said, I DID need SOMETHING to jazz it up a bit.



Rather than a regular old basket to toss dirty clothes, I opted for a pretty little bag I could hang by the washer. It was super simple, so I thought I would share how you can make one of your very own!

Here we go.

To make this size* bag you will need:

(fabric A) 34" x 31"
(fabric B) 6" x 31"
sewing machine
thread
iron
ribbon
ruler
clothes pin
scissors

*you can adjust the fabric size to suit your needs

Step 1:

With wrong sides together, match fabric A and fabric B along the raw edges along the 31" cut. 

Pin, sew (5/8" seam allowance) and press seam open. 

Step 2:

Now roll the top edge of fabric B over 1/4" and press (fig A). Then roll it over once more, this time 1" and press (fig B). This will be the channel for your ribbon tie.

Step 3:

Sew along the bottom, inside fold of your 1" channel. Next, edge stitch (or sew along the top folded edge of your channel.) Clip the ends of your sewn channel with pinking shears to prevent fraying.

Step 4:

Fold your joined pieces of fabric in half right sides together and sew from top to bottom, using a 5/8' seam allowance. Your bag should now be a circular shape. Keep the bag folded, sew along the bottom edge, using a 5/8" seam allowance.

Step 5:

At the bottom corner, where the side seam meets the bottom seam, pull the fabric away from itself and match up the seam lines. It should form a triangle (see below).

Use a ruler and pencil to mark a 3" line from one side of the triangle to the other. You will use this as your guide to sew along.

Sew along your drawn line, then clip the excess fabric 1/4" from the seam.

Repeat this step on the opposite side of the bag. Note: Since you folded the bag in half there will be no seam along the this side so you will have to use your judgement on where the seam would be.

Step 6:

Turn the bag right side out.

With your ribbon still on the roll, attach a clothes pin to the free end of the ribbon. Insert the clothes pin into the channel at the top and begin to tread the ribbon through the channel. Once the ribbon is out of the opposite end of the channel, pull it out far enough that you will be able to tie it in a bow and clip off roll with scissors.

You are finished!

For a touch of fun I stamped the words clean and dirty on clothes pins and used them to clip the bag to the shelf in my laundry room.

 

Want to see more fun ideas for you home? Scroll down and visit the fabulous parties that we link this and other projects to!