Bag #11: Peg Bag

I have seen lots of PVC peg bags for sale online and they looked very simple to make, so I thought I would have a go.  Some have two co-ordinating fabrics which are really effective.  I love all the bags I have made from PVC.  It is such a forgiving fabric.  However many mistakes I make, they never seem to show.

This bag would work well with any fabric.  If I was using a fabric other than PVC, I would add French seams all the way round.

I decided to use my bias binding tool to make the binding at the opening.  It gave me a chance to have a quick cheap colourful binding.

With spring around the corner, it will (hopefully) soon be mild enough to hang the washing out in the garden.  It will be so much nicer to have my wipe clean peg bag to keep my pegs clean and dry.

I used a leather needle for sewing the PVC.  For the seams I used my normal stitch length (2.5) and for the bias binding I used a slightly longer stitch (3).  I used a ½” seam allowance because I sewed each seam twice, ¼” apart for extra strength.

I cut this out across the width of the fabric and used only 13" or 33cm, but if the fabric pattern required the largest piece to be cut along the length rather than the width, you would need 16" or 41cm but you would get 2 or more bags out of the fabric depending on the width.

Skills used in this project:

• Making bias binding

• Using PVC

Step 1: Cutting out

Cut out the following pieces from PVC:

13” x 16” Back

13” x 6¼” Top Front

13” x 11¼” Bottom Front

(13” is the width)

You will also need:

26” x ¼” bias binding or 26” x 1” contrast fabric for binding (it does not need to be cut on the bias)

Child’s wooden coat hanger

¾” – 1” x 52" bias binding to neaten internal seams

Step 2: Shaping the fabric pieces

Draw around the top of the child’s coat hanger.  This can either be done on paper to create a pattern or direct onto the wrong side of the fabric at the top edge of the back and top front. Cut the fabric to this shape.  Mark the centre point where the coat hanger hook will go.

Step 3: Adding the binding

The two front pieces have binding along the opening.  It does not need to be bias binding as it is a straight edge (bias binding is only needed for a curved edge).  However, I used a bias binding tool to make the binding from a 1” straight strip of fabric.  The fabric was pulled through the tool and ironed as it came out to set the shape.

 

Place the right side of the binding against the wrong side of the fabric at the opening and sew along the fold line.  Fold the binding over to the right side of the fabric and sew in place. Do the same for the other front piece.

Step 4: Sewing the bag

Sew the top front to the back of the bag, right sides together leaving a gap of about ½” at the centre for the hook to go through.  I sewed twice with one seam ¼” from the edge and then the second a further ¼” in to strengthen the seam.

Sew the bottom front to the back of the bag, as above.  The bottom front will overlap the top front.

Step 5: Neatening the internal edges

The binding covers the raw edges to neaten the internal seams.

Using ¾” bias binding (and this really does need to be bias binding because it has to go round curves), turn the end under and start to attach it where the coat hanger hook will go.  Sew one side of the binding all the way round and then wrap it round the seam and sew the other side in place so that the raw edges of the fabric are covered by the binding. Do not cover the hook hole, but start the binding on one side and finish on the other.

    

I realised afterwards that I hadn't taken any photos showing how to join the bias binding so I used a scrap of left over fabric and some binding to illustrate this step.

Turn the peg bag the right way out, fit the coat hanger hook through the hole.  Hang it up and fill it with pegs.  Laundry day will be so much more fun with your lovely wipe clean peg bag.

In this project I learnt:

• Using a bias binding tool was really straight forward once I got into the swing of it.  I used it for making straight binding rather than bias binding, but it worked just as well.  At first, the binding was a bit wobbly but I soon learnt through trial and error how to use the tool.  It gave me the opportunity to use binding in any fabric and any design which opens up a world of choice.

• I had planned to sew French seams but forgot how hard it is to sew PVC when the shiny side is against the feed dogs.  I soon realised it wasn’t viable and sewed  2 rows  of stitching all the way round instead, but this left raw edges which I hadn’t bargained for.  I knew I couldn’t leave them unfinished (I have a horror of unfinished seams) so I decided to bind them.  They needed bias binding because they had to go round the curve of the coat hanger as well as the straight sides.  I wanted a plain binding because I didn’t want it to show through.  I couldn’t find a suitable fabric in my stash to use to make my own binding so I used a bought bias binding from my stash but it was only ½” wide and it was too narrow really for these deep seams.  I really needed ¾” – 1” binding. I should have realised that French seams wouldn’t work with PVC but I know now.