After sewing numerous projects, one will inevitably end up with odd pieces of leftover fabric. I decided to turn some of these pieces into a patchwork drawstring bag.
I wanted the bag to be 8x8 inches with 2x2 inch squares, so my patchwork would have to be 16in long and 8in wide. To figure out how many squares I needed, I multiplied the desired length by the desired width to find the total area, and then divided the total area by the area of a single square:
(16*8) / (2*2) = 32 squares
After gathering four kinds of fabric with complimentary colors and patterns, I divided the total number of squares by the four kinds of fabric to determine how many squares of each kind of fabric I would need.
32 / 4 = 8 squares from each fabric
After cutting out the squares, I arranged them in the desired pattern, and sewed them all together.
In hindsight, I probably should've picked fabrics with similar textures. Since they were all different, this resulted in some uneven edges.
Regardless, I plowed ahead and sewed up the two sides to form the outer shell of the bag.
For the lining and top part of the bag, I cut out a strip of blue cloth 21 inches long and 7 1/2 inches wide, folded it over with the bad side on the outside, and sewed down each side. I left a 1 inch hole at the bottom so the bag could be flipped inside out later.
Next, I turned the patchwork shell inside in and put it inside the lining, so that the good sides of the shell and lining were together. Then I sewed around the top.
If I had wanted to get fancy, I probably could have handstitched a nice seam around the hole. But I decided against the extra work since the fabric wasn't the type to easily unravel.
As you can see, the bag is not 8x8, as I had intended. The dimensions of the finished bag are 6in wide and 8in long. Regardless, I'm still quite happy with how it turned out.
