Take Along Art / Craft Bag - Part 1

Good morning Bloglanders

To all my fellow storage enthusiast coming from the Craft Storage Ideas blog - thanks for joining me this week - we will have FUN and I'll show exactly how I made my Take Along Art / Craft Bag.

This is what the finished product looks like:

Today we are going to cut and seam the open edges. Tomorrow I'll explain how I added the elastic to fit my tools, Wednesday we will do the "puffy pocket", on Thursday Velcro, straps and finishing up. On Friday I have a special surprise for you - a mini version for the kiddo's. Perfect and just in time for Xmas. Check back as there is a TWIST on this one!!

Without further ado I'll show what the finished bag should look like. The final size of the closed bag is 30 x 33 cm and about 6cm deep to accommodate the inside pockets.

NB!!! 1 inch = 2.54 cm. Therefor, if you want to measure in inches, you have to divide my measurements by 2.54. At the end of the week, I'll share a link to a printable where you will have both units.

You will need about 70cm of leftover, sturdy fabric. Mine was a 140cm wide bull denim.
40cm elastic
32 cm Velcro (1.5 cm wide)
Sturdy cardstock. (I added this as I want to use my bag for crops. Therefor, I wanted my covers to be extra sturdy not to damage my scrapbook paper. My scrapbook paper go into the "pockets" that form between the outside front and back covers)

Lets start cutting:
70 x 35 cm (Cut 2) - Front and Back

23 x 30cm - Flat Pocket

25 x 40cm - Puffy Pocket

19 x 30cm - Back Pocket

15 x 15cm (Cut 2) - Back pocket flap, Bag flap (fold in half to be 15 x 7.5cm)

10 x 10cm - Puffy Pocket flap (fold in half to be 10 x 5cm)

40 x 5cm (Cut 2) - Handles (fold in half to be 40 x 2.5cm)

Now seam all the edges that will be left open. I used a zig zag. (length 4, width 2) - the look I wanted was "rough and arty".  If you want a neater look, just fold over and stitch.

The edges that will stay open are:

Short edges of front and back

Flat pocket short edge

Puffy Pocket long edge

Back pocket long edge

Also, fold the flaps and handles in half, iron flat and sew around the open edges:

Now we are ready to start assembling.  I'll be back tomorrow to show you how. The puffy pocket is the only tricky part BUT if you follow my instructions it's easy peasy.

For my non-sewing Bloglanders, I brought some Halloween inspiration. Just follow the links below the pictures to see the inside info.

                  LINK                                           LINK                                                 LINK

       Spider Pillow Packs                           A Jar of Worms                                   Mini Pumpkins  

Thanks for joining me today. Have a Marvellous Monday and remember to try something new - TODAY!!