a knitting project bag

It’s sometimes quite difficult to think of gifts for Mum because she will say, without fail; please DON’T GET ME ANYTHING FOR MY BIRTHDAY.  But… I have to think of something!!!  Besides the fact that she’d probably be little bit upset if I actually did give her nothing, haha  😉

Mum is always knitting, and she’s still particularly keen on knitting socks… whenever she comes up to stay she brings her knitting, usually stuffed in some flimsy plastic shopping bag; and works on it pretty solidly, at all hours of the day or night.  And inevitably, she will ask to borrow my scissors and a wool needle… btw, I don’t mind at all hunting these things out for her, but really it would be so much better if she had them with her and at hand already.

Lightbulb moment… Mum was in urgent need of a knitting project bag!!

It’s only recently I even became aware that knitting project bags were a thing, after I discovered a few knitting podcasts on youtube… where knitting project bags are an absolute must have!  I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that my own knitting bag is just a daggy old, small shop tote thing, that shops put your purchases into… it can be seen in this post here.  It’s not very good, and Mum’s isn’t any better.

I perused Le Stash, and my hand fell on some lovely garden-green raw silk, mainly because I knew I had a matching zip in my zip stash already too.  The green silk turned out to be a pair of trousers, that Mum herself had originally give to me to use for fabric sometime.  She’d originally bought them in Italy, while on holiday, and got many years of good use out of them.  It occurred to me I could make a really good little project bag, utilising the trousers’ existing welt pockets and waistband…  bonus that this lovely fabric is boomeranging its way back to Mum in a new, and newly useful form.  Full circle! I selected some brushed tartan cotton for the bags’s lining, and inserted a new zip underneath the waistband facing inside, along with a wrist strap, so she can have the bag hanging from her wrist and still knit from it.  I think the really interesting thing about the bag though is the accessories; I added three little tabs inside, two with swivel clips, to which I attached a pair of scissors, and a pack of wool needles, and the third has a D-ring to which I’ve sewn a tape measure.  I left the original back welt pockets intact on the outside (above), so she can tuck small extra things into those pockets, things she might not want to go rattling around the inside of the bag.

I think she will have everything she needs!

I wrote a little tutorial, in case anyone reading this wishes to have a go at a similar refashion for themselves.  It’s a very useful thing for a knitter, whether for yourself or a gift for someone else, it’s easy and kinda fun to make, and I think it turned out quite cute too! In fact I would really like one for myself!

I used:

a pair of trousers with a waistband,
piece of brushed cotton for lining (around 52cm x 25cm),
stiff interfacing (52cm x 25cm)
30cm zip
2x 13mm swivel clips
1x 20mm D-ring

Extra accessories to finish; a tape measure, pair of scissors, pack of wool needles

To start with, unpick the side seams of your trousers, and cut out the seat.  Cut the waistband off at the side seams too, allowing the same seam allowance as the side seams.  Note; I then trimmed down my piece to about 52cm x 25cm (inc waistband) which made a bag with a finished measurement of approximately 20x20cm, and with a base of 20cmx8cm.

If your trousers have welt, or other pockets, that’s a bonus!  Cut a piece of lining fabric the same size and shape, using the trouser piece as a template.  If the fabric is on the floppy side, apply stiff fusible interfacing to the lining, and if your interfacing is anything like as unreliable as mine, it’s a good idea to stitch/quilt the interfacing and lining together to be sure they stay together as one layer.

Unpick and open out the lower edge of the waistband facing, and stitch up the side seams, including the waistband and waistband facing, in one continuous seam.  Stitch the lower bottom seam.  Likewise, stitch the side seam/s and bottom seam of the lining.

Determine the desired width of the bag bottom… this should be at least equivalent to, or even a bit wider than the bag opening.  I made mine 20cm.  Measure this length along the bottom edge of the bag, centred so that the excess on each side is the same.   Bring the side seam and bottom edge seam to meet, right sides together, and pin.  Determine the side edges of the base of the bag, by marking two straight lines at the end points of the bag base, perpendicular to the bottom seam.  (shown on the bag lining, below) Measure each carefully to ensure they are going to be the same length, if there are differences then adjust and re-mark until they  are equivalent.  Mine are 8cm long from pin to pin.

Stitch.  Construct the lining bag to be exactly the same.  Trim off the corners.  Pin the bag and bag lining together along the bottom side edges, wrong sides together, and stitch together along the previous stitching, ie. the short side edges of the base of the bag.

Turn the bag right sides out, so the lining bag sits inside the outer bag, attached at the base but not yet attached at the top.  You can optionally stitch the bag and bag lining together along the long bottom seam as well, however I found this to be quite fiddly…

Make the wrist strap and tabs for the bag’s accessories to hang off…  my
dimensions are:

strip 1: 8cm x 37cm
strip 2: 4cm x 10cm

Construct each as follows: fold strips in half lengthwise and press, open out and fold both raw edges in to meet the pressed centre line, press.  Fold the strip in half along the first fold line and press, topstitch close to each long edge of the strip.

Cut the narrower strip in half, giving two 5cm strips. Thread each through the closed top of a swivel clip, and baste raw edges together.   Cut 5cm off one end of the first, wider strip for the tape measure tab, thread this piece through a D-ring, baste.  Stitch the tape measure onto the D-clip.  The remainder of the wider strip will be used for the wrist strap.

Bag: open up the remainder of the waistband facing away from the waistband.  Pin the ends of the wrist strap to the waist band facing adjacent to either side of one side seam, baste in position close to the raw edge.  Take the zip, and pin each side of the zip to the waistband facing, aligning the top and bottom ends of the zip with the side seams of the bag, and ensuring the opening end of the zip is adjacent to the wrist strap, and with wrist straps folded back against the waistband facing; topstitch zips in place, stitching over the wrist straps.  Leave a gap of 1.5cm each side at the bottom end of the zip to enable the end to sit on the outside.  Trim the zip, leaving a 2-3cm tail.  Cut a small square of fabric and use it to wrap and enclose the trimmed bottom edge of the zip; fold, pin, and stitch it in place.

Open the zip; take the three previously made tabs with swivel clips and D-ring attached and pin them around the top of the lining bag, raw edges even, right sides together, and with the swivel clips/D-ring hanging down inside the lining bag.  Fold down the waistband facing enclosing the raw edge of the lining bag and top edges of the accessories tabs inside the old waistband.  Pin waistband facing back to its old position on the original waistband of the trousers.  Ensure the upper ends of the zip tape are tucked up inside the waistband, also check you are happy with the position of the tabs with swivel clips/D-ring before stitching the old waistband facing back in place.  This can be a little fiddly around the top and lower edge of the zip, but just take care and stitch as far as possible.

The final step is to clip a small packet of wool needles and pair of scissors to the swivel clips.

Aaaand, done!!!  Now, I really really want to make one for myself too!