DIY Flour Sack Book Bag {plus a Promo and a GIVEAWAY}

If you are at all like us, then you like to hit up the local library.  And if you have kiddos in school, my guess is that they bring home books from their school library as well.  It is important to keep those books separate from the other piles of books throughout the house, so they get returned on time {no more frantic late night book searches}.

We had a designated basket for awhile, which worked great with the exception that it wasn't the most portable.  So, I decided to try my hand at one of my very first sewing projects, while also using things I had on hand at home, to DIY myself a little book sack for stashing a few library books and also for transporting them to and from the library. 

Yep!  Totally used a flour sack dish towel.  I have been trapped in the house and that is what I had, so that is what I used, and it. is. awesome.

To get started, I washed and ironed the towel, and laid a larger book on top of it to get an idea of the size I wanted.  Since we only ever have a couple of books at a single time, I didn't need anything too large and bulky.

Once I determined the width, I used a tape measure to measure and a ruler to draw some light lines on the towel with a pencil.

Then, while the dishtowel was folded in half, I cut each side {since the dishtowel had a bulky finished edge on one side, I opted to cut both sides to remove the original sewn edges, leaving the bottom folded and the top finished edge as is}.  Then, I cheated and used some hem tape to give each side a nice new, less bulky finished edge.

So now I had something like this {top - original edge, sides - hem taped edges}:

Next, I pulled out the sewing machine.  Knowing that books can be heavy, I wasn't going to "no sew" this little sack.  I needed to pull out the big guns....

A quick seam up each side of the towel and I now had a simple tote.

Since the tote would need a handle, I thought up a few ways to create one, but remembered I still had grommets leftover from these DIY Canvas Storage Boxes, so I pulled those out for this project too.  I thought they would add just a little extra strength and interest to the flour sack bag.

Using a grommet kit, I added two grommets to each side of the sack for a total of four.

Because I am a labelaholic and the white sack was looking pretty blah, I switched gears for a minute to play with the new Silhouette fabric interfacing.

The Silhouette can cut fabric!  This is music to my ears since I am not all that handy with scissors.  The first step is to use an iron to affix the fabric interfacing to the back of the desired fabric.

Once the interfacing is on the back of the fabric, it can be placed on a cutting mat to be run through the Silhouette.  Here it is cutting away.

I was really original and decided to have it cut the word "books".  It came out nice and crisp!  Crazy to think it had just cut fabric!

To get the newly cut fabric on the newly sewed flour sack, it was just a matter of removing it from the cutting mat and placing it on the sack in my desired location.

Eight seconds of pressing the letters with my iron....

And the bag was now labeled.

Now, I needed to figure out the handles.  I was completely out of rope, so ribbon was the next solution.  After brainstorming a bajillion ways to loop it through, I went back to the sewing machine.

I looped the ribbon through the grommet and sewed two lines across the ribbon to make sure it would really stay put.  A little Fray Check would prevent the ribbon edges from going all cray cray.

And here she is all nice and cute and ready to go to the library!

Yep!  Flour sack turned book sack!  I am so in love with it!  I think it just earned a permanent home on the hook!

No more misplaced books!  In fact, she is a constant subtle reminder of our next trip to the library.  Smitten.

And guess what?  It's Silhouette promo time, so you can play with the fabric cutting {and everything else cutting} tool too!

To snag one of these great deals, you can head here and enter ORGANIZING at checkout.

And, because I heart you and to bring on the super long weekend, I am giving away a Silhouette Portrait today too!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


So much fun to whip up something from nothing.  And sewing wasn't all that hard!  Now just to remember to pin and figure out how to get a nice straight line and I will be set, ha!

Have you taken on any impromptu sewing projects lately?

IHeart Organizing official giveaway entry rules can always be found here.