Drawstring Gift Card Bag Tutorial

A little background...

I recently had a custom order that required making several (lots of) little drawstring bags...

By my second order, a few weeks and many other projects later, I could not remember how I made the first batch.Total brain freeze.I was advised to search online and came up with many options but most were more complicated than I wanted to do, had 2 openings for the ties, or the directions were not that easy to read.

I tried several different ways and finally after using much fabric that I had budgeted for the order, and almost in tears, I came up with these...The originals were meant for holding jewelry, & were a little bigger, but I thought the concept would be great for a reusable gift card bag.

They turned out so nice (and simple) I decided to turn lemons into lemonade and write out a step by step tutorial so that:

1) I could have a documented step by step tutorial for my own personal use next time ;)

&

2) I could share them with you :)

  This is a great project for little scraps of fabric and fun trim and embellishments :)

Hopefully I have written out the directions clearly...click on any photo to enlarge...

~ Reusable Drawstring Gift Card Bag Tutorial ~

you will need: 

~7.5 x 9.5" fabric scrap

~1/8th inch wide ribbon

~optional:buttons,trim etc.

 step 1:

 please note:if you want your card bag to be a little 'puffier' you could add an inch to the width...
 also, depending on the width of the ribbon tie you will be using,you may need to add onto the height.
The ribbon I used is 1/8th inches wide.The ribbon tie channel allowance shown here is 1 inch, minus 1/4-1/2 inch for pinking edges and the seam as shown in step 3, leaving about 1/2 inches for the ribbon.If you're using a wider ribbon tie adjust the height as necessary.Add about a 1/2 inch for every 1/4 inch of ribbon width onto the existing measurement.

 step 2:

 step 3:

 

1/4 inch= about 0,6cm

step 4:

if you will be embellishing your bag, try laying it out where you would like to place it first~ just make sure it is below the folded upper raw edge (as seen in step 2) then stitch it in place

 

step 5:

 make sure to match edges and seams carefully

  

step 6:

1/4"= about 0,6cm

you can 'pink' the bottom raw edges after stitching

step 7:

 be careful when pushing out corners

step 8:

note~

if you have not cut your ribbon tie yet,don't. wait until the next step :)

 another view for step 8

 step 9:

   

step 10:

add embellishments if you like ~and voila, you're done!

if you like the gift card bag shown here, i will send it along to the first reader who makes a purchase in my shop and mentions this tutorial in the notes to seller :)