Pillowcase = Bag

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you are having a fabulous holiday! Once we get back to our home and we're not spending time with families, I will have to do a Christmas post of some kind.  For now, I want to share this project with you.

I got a sewing machine from my grandma not too long ago and I thought I would make a few things for Christmas.  I found this idea from Spider Woman Knits and decided that it would be a great gift!  It's a bag made from a pillowcase!

What you'll need:
Sewing machine
Pillowcase
Scissors
Iron


Get your pillowcase ready and here we go!

First, cut the the hemmed edge of the pillowcase (the opening side) right next to the factory stitch.  Be careful not to cut it though.

Put the top part aside.  You'll need it later.  Turn the pillowcase inside out sew the opening, but leave about 4 inches left of it open.

 Turn the pillowcase right side out now and sew the opening that you left (don't freak out, it'll look okay in the end).

Now, take your hemmed edge and pull the the two sides away from each other, separating each side.     While doing this tuck the hemmed edge down into the bottom so that you are now forming a bag.  It should look like the picture on the right (or somewhat similar).

 The hemmed edge will now be the base of your bag.  Now that you just turned it right side out, turn it inside out.  The hemmed edge should be on the outside.  Make sure that your bag is still even and the corners are fully tucked into each other.  What you're going to do now is stick your hand in the corner and get the corner in the middle to get a triangle shape.   Look at the picture for help if you need it.  You're going to sew straight across to close off the triangle.  This will help form the base of your bag.  Do the same thing on both sides.

When you have finished sewing both sides, turn the bag right side out and you should have a nice base for your bag.

Now we'll put the bag to the side for awhile.  Let's get to the top part of our pillowcase.  This will now become the straps for our cute bag.  Cut the strip on the factory seam.  This will give you one long strip (or tube).  Cut this long strip in half.

You should now have two strips (tubes) of equal length.

You'll probably want to iron them so that they are nice and flat before moving on.  Take one tube and fold the edge over twice.  You can either pin it straight onto your bag from here or you can sew it.  I decided to sew it to make it a little easier for me.

Fold all of the edges of your strips  and pin them to your bag where you want the handles.

You're then going to sew all the way around the bag TWICE.  You'll want to make sure that you go over the handles each time to ensure that it's nice and secure.

THAT'S IT!  You have successfully made a cute bag from a pillowcase.  Mine isn't perfect because I'm still a newbie sewer.  I hope yours turned out well.  It was really fun and easy to make.  I think I'll do it again some day.