Making Project Bags

A new year and I am full of energy in my lovely new sewing room. You may have seen the little video on instagram, but if you haven’t here it is…

One of the first priorities for the year was to make some project bags. Like most ‘makers/stitchers’ I often have at least 4 projects on the go at any one time: a knitting one, an embroidery one/two, a dressmaking one, and a quilting one. Being organised is key and being able to put them in bags to keep everything together is so useful. A while ago I made a canvas ‘Field Bag’ from the Grainline studio pattern (there is an excellent step by step video guide to making this too) and this has been one of the most useful things I have ever made. It fits a knitting project in perfectly and all last year when we were moving around, it was invaluable. It’s a great pattern, but I was a little unadventurous with my choice of fabric - plain cream canvas. I did add a pair of iron on embroidered patches from Hand & Lock onto the front to liven things up a little, but it has been so successful that I planned to make more.

When I was knee deep in unpacking during our house move, it was a good opportunity to sort through some of the fabrics that were stashed in the eternal plastic boxes (I am not a fan generally of anything ‘plastic’). I have one box labelled ‘Home dec fabrics’ and it has quite a number of odd remnants that were given to me over a decade ago. Now was the moment to use these. So I sorted through them, picking out some possible scraps.

First up were two strip pieces of lovely ‘jacobean style’ remnants. I loved the colours of these and decided I could one to make a project bag and one to line a basket.

Making sure to use the pattern as best I could, the bag needed to be a little taller than the ‘field bag’ so I simply cut it to the same width but with some more height. As the fabric wasn’t as stiff as the canvas, I used woven iron-on interacing for it, but also put a lining in the bag. It was easy to make and with a red band for the cording, it looks really smart.

I think this will definitely be a great bag for my embroidery projects and help to keep things clean and separate. The other bit of this fabric I used to line a basket, I also found when unpacking. The basket was pretty but had a lot of open work at the sides, so lining it meant it provided a bigger storage space.

This is perfect for storing my yarn. I am absolutely determined not to build a stash of this so the rule is only what can fit in the basket!!

So with that piece of fabric used up, I turned to another really pretty piece from the box that was more delicate. It is a thick linen, printed with a botanical pattern and some machine embroidery on it and paired well with some of the canvas I had left over from the field bag. I had an idea of what to do with it, thanks to this book (a christmas present) by Around Khounnoraj (bookhou on instagram). It’s a really lovely book, full of ideas for using small pieces of fabric.

In this case though, I was able to just use one section of this fabric and decided to embellish it and also add a silk scrap, (I also have a boxful!) which just happened to match colour wise, so perfectly, down the side with some embroidery on.

Stitching this filled a very rainy grey day here and it looked so pretty. I backed the pocket with woven interfacing and it had a canvas lining too, which gave it stability. This bag pattern, in the book, is easy to follow and just a lovely size for a project bag, especially if you want to take it out and about.

As I was making this, I thought about how we ram things in plastic bags and boxes and yet this is such a lovely, gentle alternative. The bag turned out so well and will be perfect for a larger knitting project - one of my goals for 2026 is to attempt to knit a sweater (or at least a tank) so now I am all set.

All these projects have been made from bits and bobs and for me, it is a great start to my ‘making’ year to be organised and with such pretty things. Also it is great to be using things up - I hope sustainable sewing will be a theme for the whole of 2026. My target is to get rid of two large plastic boxes by next Christmas.

Here are few useful links if you fancy making any of these things.

Hand & Lock do great iron on embroidered patches that really make a difference to a plain bag. You can find them here

Grainline Studio for the Field Bag pattern is here

Around Khounnoraj’s website Bookhou is here