Friday, October 15, 2010

'Where is my mate?' missing sock bag



I've shared this tutorial on

So, one of my pet peeves is missing socks. I've even gone as far as to number the bottoms of socks to try to keep track of how and when and where they were jumping ship. FYI it didn't work. So I've been using an old plastic bag to hold all the socks that come out of the dryer alone. Finally I thought, 'Why not make a cute little missing sock bag?' So I did, and here he is!

You'll need:
Fabric for bag
Design for bag *click here*
Embroidery supplies (or you could paint it or iron transfer it or any other method of putting an image on fabric!)
Basic sewing supplies
Cord or drawstring


Cut two pieces of fabric for your bag. Mine were 14in/14in.


Print out design or draw one and tape to window (or you can use a light box if you have one).


Find the center of one bag piece and tape fabric over your design.


Trace design onto fabric.


Now embroider your design. Or paint it or whatever you want to do to get it done!
Have I mentioned I'm no pro? I went to CraftStylish to figure out how I wanted to do my stitching.
I used a back stitch on my words, a split stitch on the sock out line and fill, a chain stitch on the mouth, and I just kind of stitched all over the eyes not really with any method.



When I got the designs done, I grab some patch scrapes I had laying around and ironed them to the back of the design to cove my raw back full of stitching.


Then fold over and hem the top leaving space for the drawstring (apparently I did not leave enough for the gray one I had wanted to use and I had to change to a skinnier black one.)
Then with your right sides together sew the right, bottom and left sides of the inside of the bag, again leaving the drawstring holes open.


At this point you can serge the edges or zigzag stitch them to finish them but I was being beckoned for a water play session with Peanut so I used Fray Blocker all around the raw edge. I have to move my machines every time I use either of them so it's just easier and quicker sometimes to just grab a tube of blocker instead!


Now run the drawstring. Start at one side go all the way through to the other side then right back in the next hole and out the other side.


Now tie a knot at the end of your drawstrings and flip your bag right side out.


How does it look? Good? Alright now put those poor lonely socks in and hang it up! Good bye crappy plastic bag!







As with all of my projects, I have designed them for my family and love to share with you so you can have them for your families as well. All projects, patterns and directions are meant for your personal use and neither the patterns nor completed projects are to be used for monetary gain.

1 comment:

  1. This is a super idea! Yes, I will post more of my writing that I do for the writers group I am in. Usually Mondays. <3 Cherie

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