T-Shirt bag

I made my daughter a new bag fro school using one of her old tshirts.

The tshirt fabric was quite thin and very stretchy so I knew it needed a strong lining so I had a look to see what I had in my stash and found some blackout lining fabric which looked like it would work.  It has a fabric that looks like a cream lining on one side and the other is coated with some kind of vinyl.  It feels very supple and hangs nicely and was easy to sew.

I cut the tshirt up the two side seams and then ironed the pieces and cut out two rectangle, I made them about 3 inches longer than I wanted the finished bag to be and about 4 inches wider.  Then I sewed the sides together and across the bottom so the top was open.  I cut out two rectangles the same size from the lining fabric and stitched them up the same way.

Then I boxed the bottom corners to give the bag some depth and did the same with the lining for the bag.

Then I cut out some long strips of tshirt fabric to use for the straps.  I had to make do on this count as there was not much fabric left so I managed to get some strips off the top of the back and some from the sleeves and stitched them together to make two larger pieces big enough to make the handles.  I think they ended up being about 3 inches wide by about 20 inches long.  I cut out the same strips from the lining then folded the lining strip into three width ways and pinned it along the middle to stop it coming apart.  The I wrapped the tshirt fabric around the outside and folded under the raw edge so that it was going to leave me a seam down the centre.  I then just stitched through all layers using a wide zig zag stitch down the middle of each handle making sure I had caught all the edges under the stitiching.

Next I turned the bag inside out and placed the lining inside the bag so that right sides were together and pinned all the way round the top inserting the handles as I went.  You need to place the handles between the outside and lining fabric and they need to be upside down so when they are pinned you dont see the handles sticking out the top, they are tucked insdie the bag.  Then I stitched around the top of the bag, the t shirt matierial was very stretchy so I made a little pleat over the top of where each handle was attached to get rid of the extra fabric evenly.  I left an opening of about 3 inches across the top one side so I could turn it all through after, then once turned, pushed the lining inside the bag, made sure the handles were fine and then top stitched around the top closing the gap as I went.

My daughter is very pleased with the bag and it feels quite strong using the blackout lining inside it.  It is not stretchy.