Make a squared-corner bagMake a squared-corner bag

Completed bag.

I love making these little bags.  They’re easy, fast, and make great gifts.  Even taking photos and taking a call from my mom, this lined bag only took an hour to make.  And you can skip squaring the corners and have a cute little flat bag, too.

Supplies

• Outer fabric
• Lining fabric
• 7″ zipper
• Scissors
• Pins
• Thread
• Ruler
• Pen
• Zipper foot
• 6″ length of 1/8″ ribbon (optional)
• Cardboard or paper to make pattern

These are your supplies (zipper foot and ribbon not pictured because I forgot about them until after I took the photo).

How To

1. Make your pattern my measuring out a 8″ by 6″ rectangle on your cardboard or paper.

2. Cut two rectangles each from your outer fabric and lining fabric.

Hint: make a pattern out of cardboard and use a rotary cutter to easily cut around it.

3. Place your outer fabric face up. Place your zipper face down on top of it along one 8″ edge.  Finally, put your lining fabric face down on top of both. Pin the fabric and zipper sandwich together.

Layer the fabric and zipper, then pin.

4. Install the zipper foot on your sewing machine and sew the zipper on by sewing 1/4″ from the edge of the fabric.

5. Fold the fabric back so the unsewn side of the zipper is visible.  Layer the fabric in the same way as above, pin, and sew.

Layer other side of bag.

Hint: Open the zipper a bit to make it easier to sew. Be careful not to catch the other side of the bag in your sewing!

The pile of fabric after it's been pinned, but before it's been sewn.

6. Open up your creation and make sure that your outer fabric pieces are both on the same side and they’re on the side with the zipper pull.

Zipper inserted!

Hint: You can topstitch along the sides of the zipper here. I usually do that, but with this crazy fake fur, I didn’t want to do that.

7. Open the zipper halfway if you haven’t already. Fold the bag so that the outer pieces are right side together and the lining pieces are right side together.  Pin.  Make sure you pin the zipper toward the lining on both ends.

(Note: this is after I got off the phone and the light was getting bad.  Sorry about that…)

Pinned.

8. Sew all around the outside of the bag, leaving a 4″ opening in the lining. I like to use two pins in a row to remind me to stop sewing.

STOP!

Hint: Skip to step 13 if you want a flat bag.

9. Now you’re going to square the corners of the bag.  Start with one corner of the lining.  Line up the bottom of the bag with the side of the bag. Flatten out the bottom of the bag until it comes to a point.

10. Pin the point. Measure down 1.5″ from the end of the stitching and make a line across the point (parallel to the pin the the photo below).

Pin and mark the corners.

11. Sew along the line.

Sew along the blue line to square the corner.

12. Repeat on each corner until you have a freaky four-cornered inside-out fabric beast.

The bag with all four corners sewn.

13. Through the opening in the lining, reach inside the bag, through the open zipper and pull the bag inside out.  Poke out all the corners.

Reach in through the hole and make the bag barf itself right side out.

14. Turn the edges of the opening in the lining to the inside, then sew it, either by hand or by machine (I usually just go with by machine).

Sew the lining closed.

15. Stuff the lining to the inside and push it into the corners. Close the zipper.

The next two steps are optional.  If you want to, skip to the end.

16. Fold the ribbon in half and push it through the zipper pull.

Loop!

17. Pull the ends through the loop you just made and pull tight.

Completed knot.

There you go: you’re done! Enjoy your new bag!