It’s In The Bag + Tutorial!

Hannie B. is always looking for a cute new bag to stash her piano books in or her tap shoes for play practice.  So a few weeks ago when I was at Costco and I picked up some Basmati rice that came in a gorgeous burlap bag, I decided to surprise her by upcycling it for her with a cute matching lining.

She was super happy when she unzipped it and found a sassy polka dot lining inside.

Here’s the bag straight from the Costco.  It already had sturdy handles and a nice zipper.

I loved the bold colors and the great design and branding on the bag.  All I needed to do was add a lining.

I found the polka dot fabric on sale at JoAnn’s. I bought half a yard, which was more than enough and cut it down to the size of the bag plus a little extra for side seams and a nice finished edge at the top.

Then I sewed two sides up to make what looked like a little pillow case.

Next I flipped my burlap bag inside out and stuffed it inside the polka dot ‘pillow case’ which was facing right side out. 

I tucked the top edge of the polka dot fabric under and pinned it as close to the edge of the zipper as possible.

Once the entire lining was pinned to the burlap bag, I sewed the lining to the bag on my machine.  I found that the fabric, bag and zipper were too thick at the far edges to fit through my machine, so I had to hand sew that part which is a little bit of a stretch for me {what? I like straight lines}, but it worked out. 

Overall this project took me one hour.  The cost of the fabric was $2.  Everything else I already had on hand.  I can’t wait to eat the rice up and go buy more.  Anybody need a cute bag?