GeoCentric Week :: Knitting Project Bags Tutorial

Michelle's been knitting for a little over 2 years now and like any enthusiast, she has many projects going at once. It was getting to a point where she needed some organization and the arrival of GeoCentric was a good catalyst.

These project bags are made with a fat quarter of fabric and are super easy to put together. They are unlined and raw edges are serged to keep frays from getting caught up in the yarn. You easily do a tight zig zag stitch or bind them up in a narrow bias tape. Another aspect is to play up the vibrant contrast of the invisible zippers so she sewed close to the edge. Details to follow.

These bags are roomy enough for a few balls of yarn, your needles and will even accommodate a standard pattern book.

Materials:
Fat quarter of GeoCentric canvas fabric
12" nylon non-separating zipper

1. Cut the fabric as shown:

• Trim the selvedge off one side
• Trim the height to 16"
• Cut the remaining piece in half lengthwise which should leave you with two pieces approximately 10.5" x 16"

2. Finish the top edges that will be sewn to the zipper.

3. Pin the finished edge to the very edge of the zipper. Note how the zipper extends past both edges of the fabric.

pin fabric to zipper

4. Stitch just to the edge of your finished edge so it does not show on the other side. The serged edge is about 1/4". If your finished edge is any thicker, then you may want to overlap the fabric a bit more because you only want about 1/4" of the zipper getting stitched.

stitch on edge of finishing technique

4. Repeat with the other fabric piece.

repeat with other piece of fabric.

5. Turn out and press fabric away from zipper and topstitch along the top edge.

Topstitch along the zipper.

6. Pushing the zipper between the panels of fabric, stitch over the open end of the zipper to "seal" it. *once you do this, move the zipper down even further to keep the bag "open" as you stitch around the edges... or else you can find yourself fussing with trying to open the bag when the zipper pull is on the inside!

stitch over zipper teeth making sure zipper pull is within the bag area

7. Putting right sides together again, align all corners. Stitch around from one zipper corner of the bag, around the bottom edge and back up to the other edge of the zipper. Be sure to catch the zipper and back tack to ensure it's all secure. Finish the raw edges.

stich around 3 remaining sides and finish raw edges 

8. Turn inside out and press. It might help to push the corners of the zippers out with a pencil eraser. Stuff it up with your project!