Drawstring Bag with French Seams: A Tutorial

A good friend of mine is getting married this summer. Her bachelorette party was a few weeks ago. I didn’t get to go, but I wanted to make a gift. I decided to make a lingerie bag.

I made the bag using a technique called “French Seams”. It means that the raw edges are hidden despite the bag not being lined. Want to find out how to sew french seams? They are really useful for bags, pillow cases, skirts, and other clothing!

I got these super cute iron-on letters, stencil spray, and a blank bag from Fashion Art Projects. I wanted to use the purple sparkly letters for this bag.

Anyway, here’s how you get started making a simple drawstring bag with French seams.

Take two identical pieces of fabric. Mine were 12” x 18”.

Here are the letters. They were easy to use. I decided where I wanted them on the bag, centered them, made sure they were level, and then followed the instructions to iron them on. Easy.

Then, pin the two pieces of fabric together with WRONG SIDES TOGETHER. (May seem counterintuitive, but just trust me.)

Sew the whole way around using about 1/2” seam allowance. Now your unfinished edges are on the outside of the bag.

 

Turn it wrong sides out. Use your fingers to push the fabric out as far as possible at all edges. Press the edges out flat. 

Now, you will sew 3/4” seam allowance on the wrong side of the bag.

 

Now, when you flip the bag back to right sides out, you won’t see any raw edges on the outside or the inside. Press the bag flat.

Next, make the top casing for the drawstring. I folded the edges under 1/4” and pressed. Then I folded them under 1” and pressed them again.

I stitched the whole way around, leaving about 1” unstitched for inserting the drawstring.

Use a safety pin to feed the drawstring through the bag’s casing. 

(I used t-shirt yarn as the string. I braided it and added some beads.)

As you can see, french seams are very useful for various projects! This bag is a great project for anyone who is a beginning sewist (if that is a word).

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Disclosure: Fashion Art Projects provided me these iron-on letters and other craft items free of charge. I received no monetary compensation for this review and all opinions are my own.