Selvage Bag Tutorial

This is my first tutorial. . . so please, be kind. I tried to take pictures of everything, and my dear husband (Mr. HowDoYouDo) was so helpful.

 Tara over at Tinkerfrog taught the class where I made my prototype at the Mama Said Sew craft party in Fort Collins, CO last Friday night. 

What you will need:

*Muslin
*Duct tape
*Metal measuring tape you don't mind cutting up (the dollar store is a great place to pick one up)
*Lots and lots of different selvage edges




1.Cut one piece of muslin approximately 7 inches wide and 14 inches long. This is going to be the base fabric that you sew your selvages on to. 
(The size can be modified depending on how large you want your bag, the instructions following are assuming this starting size and will make approximately a 6 inch x 7 inch bag.)


2. Sew your selvages on to the muslin. Sew close to the uncut edge of the selvage. Sew each selvage on top of the one before close to the uncut edge (am I making any sense yet???).

3. After all your muslin is covered, use your quilting ruler (that is what this tool is called right?) and rotary blade and cut your block to 6 inches wide, making all sides straight and even.

4. Measure your block and cut in half to make two blocks.

5. Cut two pieces of muslin, 6 inches by 3 1/2 inches.


6. Sew the first piece of muslin to the top of one of the blocks, right sides together.
(Repeat with second block.)

7. Sew sides and bottom of your selvage blocks right sides together stopping just before the muslin.

8. Clip corners and seams and turn right side out.

9. With wrong sides together, sew both sides of muslin (trust me it will make sense eventually, maybe).

10. Fold muslin out and down twice creating a casing. 

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11. Stitch casing (this was the hardest part trust me) leaving an opening large enough to insert measuring tape pieces.


12. Cut two pieces of measuring tape the width of the bag.

13. Cover measuring tape pieces with duct tape (so there are no sharp edges).

14. Insert measuring tape pieces into casing, one on each side of bag, with the curve of the tape facing out.

15. Hand stitch casing opening.


16. Fold casing down and into the bag. The pieces of tape will be curve out creating a closure in the bag. 

My favorite part is how the measuring tape creates a tight closure. It is such a cool idea. You just bend the tape to open the bag. It has a tighter closure than some of my bags with magnetic snaps! If your bag does not close tightly, it is because the tape is too short for the casing. That happened to me on my prototype, so I sewed some decorative buttons on the bag to make the casing shorter. Worked great.

Hopefully this made some kind of sense. It was a really fun project to make and a definite challenge making the tutorial. If anyone tries the project, let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.

And because most people are here just to see Lily Bear. . . here is the money shot: