Monthly Archives: September 2015

Handy clothes peg bag – tutorial

Having seen the condition of my Mum’s clothes peg bag, I decided it was time she had a new one. Being the kind soul that I am, I thought I would share this clothes peg bag tutorial with you for free. 🙂

Materials

One  wooden clothes hanger (this is a children’s hanger, approx 33cm (13″) from side to side) if your clothes hanger is wider than this, simply increase the width of the fabric to suit (make sure add in a 5/8″ / 1.5cm seam allowance on both sides when working out the width).
Outer fabric – two pieces 36cm wide x 41cm high
Lining fabric – two pieces 36cm wide x 41cm high
Matching thread

 

Seam allowances are 5/8″ (1.5cm) unless otherwise stated. Tacking is done 1/2″ (1.2cm) from the edge.

Preparing the Fabric

Supplies

  1. Take the piece of fabric you want to use for the back of the clothes peg bag, and tack (baste) it to one of the lining pieces, wrong sides together. This will stop it moving around as you sew the pieces later.
  2. Take the piece of fabric you want to use for the front, and tack that to the other lining piece, right sides together.

Marking and Making the Opening

      1. Draw the opening onto the fabric using chalk / something that won’t show through to the other side (I cheated and used a pencil) I centred my opening, making it 8 cm from the top seam, 15cm from the bottom seam. That gave me an opening 15cm high, and I made it 13cm wide.

        Measurements

        Just in case those instructions make no sense, here’s a diagram showing the measurements I used

      2. Carefully stitch over the marked opening, using a short straight stitch.
        Opening - stitched

        I stitched the opening in black to make it easier to see where I needed to cut the hole

        You’ll probably notice that my opening isn’t totally even both sides – that’s not a problem, as it’s not overly noticeable when it’s finished!

      3. Carefully cut out the opening, staying within the stitching, and clip the curves so it is easier to turn (make sure to not clip the stitches!).
        Clipped Curves
      4. Carefully unpick the tacking stitches around the outside edges.
      5. Turn the front pieces through the opening you’ve just cut, and press flat.Turned and pressed
      6. If like me you chose to use a non-matching thread up to this point, change the thread to a more suitable colour, then top stitch the opening…. I used the side of my presser foot as a guide for a nice narrow seam allowance.Top Stitch

Putting the Bag Together

  1. Take the front piece (with the opening), and the back piece (back main fabric and lining still tacked together), and place them right sides together. Pin around the outside, but mark a small space at the top for the metal hook of the clothes hanger to poke through.
    Important: This bag will have a straight top edge – for a small hanger, it isn’t really necessary to make a slope to the top, but if you’re using a larger hanger, you might want to draw the right slope onto the lining fabric so you know the exact line to follow on the next step.
  2. Starting just on the side of the opening (marked with a * on the image below), stitch down a little, then sew the 5/8″ seams around the bag. When you get to the other side of the opening, turn and stitch off the edge again, so you have two small lines either side of where the hanger will fit through.

    I’ve gone over the seams on the computer so you can see where the stitching is (the thread blends in a little too well on the lining!)

  3. Trim the seam allowance down a little (just to stop it being so bulky).
  4. For extra reinforcement, I stitched around the seams again, 1/2″ from the newly trimmed down edge (yes, this does make the bag a little smaller). This time however, I started below the opening, just backstitching on both sides to reinforce it.
  5. Turn through the opening, and press
  6. Fit the hanger into the bag, carefully slotting the hook through the gap at the top

And there you have a finished clothes peg bag, ready to fill with pegs!finished-front front-detail finished-back

I’d love to see the peg bags you make with this tutorial – simply post links to the pics in the comments 🙂

Main and lining fabric from Fashion Fabrics.


This tutorial is provided free for everyone to use. Link backs to this tutorial are welcome – please do not copy the tutorial and post it on your own site!

You may sell items you have made from this pattern, but please do not sell the pattern itself! 

 

K’s New Jacket

A couple of months ago, I knitted a jacket for a friend’s baby boy, K; but he grew out of it much faster than I’d allowed for! K’s Mum asked if I could make a larger jacket that would work for the winter. Trouble is, the pattern I used only goes up to 3-6 months, and she was looking for 9-12 months….

I had a rummage through Ravelry, and came across the Simple Hooded Cardigan by Lion Brand Yarn. It looked pretty similar to the Wee Speedy knit I’d made originally, and with chunky yarn I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be a nightmare to knit.

K's Jacket

The main body is knitted in stocking stitch, with a garter stitch edge to the base and front edges. The sleeves were an experience to try picking up the stitches for – I’m sure I didn’t get them quite as balanced as they were meant to be, but hopefully the sleeves are nice and comfortable.

K's Jacket

The buttonhole was pretty easy, just being a yarn over – I was able to use a couple of buttons from my Mum’s button stash, which catch the light really nicely, but also compliment the blue in the yarn.

K's Jacket

I purposefully chose a variegated yarn, as I wanted to have some additional interest in there (and the original one was knitted with one strand of white and one strand of blue, so I was looking for something similar). This was Marriner Mermaid Chunky in blue random – only £1.50 a ball and fully washable, which is essential!

K's Jacket

Hopefully we’ll get some nice chilly weather in autumn and winter, so K can wear his new jacket a lot of times before he grows out of this one too! 😉