Joy’s Cinch Bag: A FREE Tutorial
Hey, sewing friends! It’s Amanda from LoveCraftSew on the blog today with a FREE cinch bag tutorial that also makes the perfect trick or treat bag! My daughter is dressing up as Joy from Inside Out this year and really wanted me to sew her the matching bottomless Bing Bong bag Joy uses in the movie.
I wanted to replicate the bag from the movie as close as possible, so I put together a tutorial for this cinch bag using grommets but also put together a tutorial for a 2nd method using a channel for the cinching instead. The bag is also a little larger than the one in the movie so that it can be a large enough bag for that Halloween candy haul.
Let’s gather our materials first. You will need the following:
- Woven fabric: two pieces both cut to 20” x 20” in size
- Drawstring/ribbon/cording: 2 pieces cut to 45” each in length (customize shorter or longer based on your child’s size)
- Grommets, plus setting tools, and 2 pieces fusible interfacing cut into 1” x 20” (for grommet option only)
After you have cut your fabric, you will fold your fabric in half and round the bottom edges of the bag. After you have rounded your bottom 2 corners on both fabrics you will serge around all 4 edges of both pieces. You will also apply the interfacing to the top edge of the grommet option bag on the wrong side of the fabric.
If you are sewing up the grommet option bag you will sew down both sides and bottom with a ½” seam allowance. If you are sewing the channel option bag you will leave the top 1” of both sides unsewn.
Next, you will press the seams open on the top sides of both bags. On the grommet option you will then press the top down wrong sides together 1” all the way around and top stitch. On the channel option you will press the seam allowance to the inside on the top edge of both sides (the 1” left unsewn) and top stitch is down. You will then press the top edge down 1” wrong sides together on both sides and top stitch both the front and the back creating the channels.
If you are sewing the channel bag you will then thread a drawstring through each side and then knot the ends together and you are finished!
If you are sewing the grommet bag you will then evenly install your grommets all the way around. I chose to add 4 per side. You will then lace a drawstring through each side and then tiethe ends of each side into a knot. You are then finished with your grommet cinch bag!
I hope you are inspired for Halloween with this perfect trick or treat bag, and I cannot wait to see yours in the Simple Life Fan Group when you are finished!
**Joy costume is sewn using the Autumn pattern and Disgust costume is sewn using the Quinn and Energize patterns**
