Clothes peg bag

A relatively straight-forward, quick project this time.  I don't know why, but there was something that felt very grown-up about getting my own washing line.  Putting it up was just another one of those little things that goes towards making the house feel like my home.

A clothes line needs a clothes peg bag, so I took a break from working on my tablecloth to have a go at making my own.  I remembered that this was one of the projects in the Cath Kidston book Sew! a friend had given me a while ago (and which I have mentioned before on this blog) and I used this project as a basis for making my peg bag.

It was very helpful to have instructions on which to base my design, although I didn't follow these exactly.  For example, in Sew! the pattern is based on using a 30cm coat hanger, and it suggests that if you can't find a hanger of that size you could shortern a standard hanger by using a hacksaw to cut it.  I didn't really fancy trying to cut bits off a plastic hanger, so I used a standard wire hanger and drew my own template based on this.  Using a wire hanger was a benefit when it came to inserting it into the bag at the end, as it is malleable and could be moved into place easily.

The bag measures approximately 41cm (w) x 33cm (at the highest point)

I'm really pleased with the final result.  And because I already had the fabric (which in fact had been given to me some years ago) and used an old wire hanger, I've got this lovely clothes peg bag at no cost, except the couple of hours I spent on it, spread over two weekends.  So lots to smile about.  I've already been putting the bag into use and as a home-made addition to the ritual of hanging out the washing I'm glad I invested the time to make my own.

This is an easy, quick project and I would urge anyone to have a go.  I used a sewing machine, but it isn't necessary (it would just take a bit longer to do it by hand, but not much).  There are lots of ways you could embellish the basic design.  For example, if I were to make another clothes peg bag I would think about adding letters (in the same fabric as the binding) to spell the word "pegs" across the front of the bag.

Here's how I made the bag:

Using the hanger as my starting point, I drew a paper template and cut out two pieces of fabric.

I made bias binding by cutting strips of fabric, cutting the ends on the diagonal (45 degrees) and sewing these together, then folding and pressing the edges.

I cut a narrow slit in the front piece.  I first pinned the bias binding into place around the slit on the right side of the fabric, folding it into pleats at the corners.  Having sewn this into place (by machine), I folded the bias binding over the raw edge and hand stitched the binding into place on the wrong side of the fabric.

I found the folded corners very tricky, and they could be neater.  I think next time I would try to think of a better way to do the corners (e.g. two straight strips of binding rather than trying to go around such tight corners).

The next step was to join the two pieces of the bag together.  I lay these pieces down wrong side to wrong side.  I pinned the bias binding into place around the edge (pinning through all three layers of fabric), starting from the top (so as to leave a gap for the hanger) and putting small pleats in at the two bottom corners.  I machine stitched this into place, sewing through all three layers (the bias binding and the two main pieces).

I then folded the binding over the raw edge and hand stitched it on the back of the bag, before the final step of inserting the hanger.