Drawstring Box Bags Tutorial ~ DIY Tutorial Ideas!

Here’s a fairly quick project that looks pretty sharp and can take on different styles depending on your storage needs.

These box/bags would be great for storing a crafty project, especially yarns for knitting or crochet, as the yarn could feed right through the drawstring opening and won’t roll away from you since it’s secure in the box. Or, make up some quick beanbags and this box/bag serves in both storage and game play.

Don’t let the number of photos in this tutorial fool you—it took me about two hours from start to finish. So, let’s get started!

Supplies

- Two pieces of heavy, stiff interfacing measuring about 18″ x 11″ or thin cardboard cut to the size of the the sides and bottom of your box
- About 2/3 to 1 yard of fabric for the box (I used the same fabric for the outside and the lining, but you could do two different fabrics if you like.)
- About 1/3 yard fabric for the drawstring top
- Small amount of fabric for your top edge accent
- Two 1-yard lengths of string, ribbon, cord—whatever you want to use for your drawstring
- Thread and needle or sewing machine
- Cutting tools
- Paper for creating your pattern

The Box

So, to make my fabric box, I started by drawing up a pattern that was a sort of T shape.

The top measures 17″ across. The entire piece is 10 1/2″ tall, but you’ll have a 4 1/2″ square piece cut out of each of the bottom corners so that the bottom measures 8 1/2″ long. (See photo if this isn’t clear.) Of course, you can always change these measurements to alter the size and shape of your box.

Placing the bottom (8 1/2″) side of the pattern on the fold of my fabric, I cut it out with 1/4″ seam allowance added and then cut a second one as well. I did the same thing with my interfacing, minus the seam allowance.

With wrong sides together, sew the 6 1/4″ sides (the ends of the top of the T) together with 1/4″ seam allowance. Do this on both pieces of fabric.

Press that seam open and flatten the box so that the remaining raw edges beneath that seam (where you cut out the 4 1/4″ squares) line up.

Sew these edges together with 1/4″ seam allowance. Do this on each piece of fabric.

Optional: You can do the same with your interfacing if you like, but I chose not to. It fits into the box pretty easily without seams.

Now you’ve got a floppy box, like so:

Turn one of the boxes right-side-out. Place your interfacing box inside.

Then add the second box inside that.

You’ll need to do some shuffling around to get all the corners and edges in place. (You can tack the corners together if you wish.) Don’t worry if your raw edges don’t line up perfectly. Just get the inside of the box how you want it and trim the raw edges to make them even.

Optional: At this point I chose to baste all three layers around the top, just to keep them from sliding as I did the next steps. This isn’t necessary but may be helpful if you’re worried about keeping the edges together.

You could stop here and make this into a cat bed, apparently.

But I decided to keep going.

Drawstring Top

Take your drawstring fabric and cut out two pieces that measure 17 1/2″ long. To achieve the exact same look as my box, the pieces should be 6 1/4″ tall, but if you want a taller drawstring portion, you can always adjust this number.

(Note: I used a fabric that had no right or wrong side, so it looks the same on both sides except for a couple of seams. If your fabric has a wrong side that you want to cover, you can always line this piece as well.)

Place the pieces right-sides-together. Mark 2 1/2″ down from the top on each short side and sew each of the short sides together with 1/4″ seam allowance, stopping when you get to your marks.

This will create a tube with two openings at the top for your drawstring, like so:

Press your seams open.

Fold the top of the tube down 1/2″ and press. Fold down another 1″ and press. (Note: You may need to adjust these measurements to better accommodate the width of what you’ve chosen to use for your drawstring.)

Topstitch close to the bottom fold. This creates your drawstring casing.

Now, with the wrong side of your drawstring fabric out, place it inside your fabric box with the casing going down into the box. Line up the raw edges of the bottom of the drawstring fabric with the raw edges of the top of the box. The wrong side of the drawstring fabric should now be against the inside of the box. At this point you can baste the drawstring fabric to the box if desired.

Accent Edge

With your accent fabric, sew 1 1/2″ strips together on the short ends until you’ve achieved a length of roughly 1 yard. You can sew them with angled joins like you would sew bias strips for a quilt binding, but I actually just made my seams straight and it worked just fine.

(Sorry, didn’t take photos here. There are also quite a few videos of this process on YouTube if you need a better visual.)

Press one short end of your strip in 1/4″ for a finished edge.

Turn your finished strip down 1/2″ and press.

Fold the other long edge of the strip down 1/4″ and press. (The raw edge should meet the raw edge of the 1/2″ fold you just did.)

Then fold where the raw edges meet and press, so that one side of your strip is 1/2″ wide and the other side is 1/4″ wide. This will essentially give you something resembling a bias strip for finishing your raw edges.

(You can, of course, adjust these measurements for whatever look you want to achieve. I wanted the accent to be wider on the outside of the bag and narrower on the inside.)

Place the 1/2″ side of your bias strip against the outside of your box with right sides together and pin in place.

Make sure your short end with the raw edge overlaps the short end with the pressed edge so you won’t have any exposed edges in the end.

Sew the bias strip to the box with 1/2″ seam allowance. Note that this seam will show on the inside of the box, so make sure you’re using a thread color you’re happy with!

Then fold your strip over all the raw edges of the box and drawstring fabric so that the middle pressing mark is at the top of the box and your next folded edge wraps into the inside of the box, like so:

Pin it in place and hand stitch the strip to the inside of the box, as you would with a quilt binding.

It should look like this when you’re done:

The Drawstring
Now your raw edges are covered and your drawstring fabric is attached. The last step is to thread your drawstring into the casing.

Place a safety pin in the end of one drawstring and thread it into your casing on one side.

Draw the string all the way through the casing, out the first opening and back into the second side …

… all the way through until it comes back out the opening directly beside the one you went in. Tie a knot with your two ends.

Then, starting on the opposite side of the box, thread your second drawstring into the opening (your first drawstring will just be going across this opening) and all the way around. You’ll cross over where the first drawstring begins and ends and go back into the casing.