How to Make a Cross Body Clothespin or Peg Bag

In this video I'm going to show you how to make your own clothespin or peg bag

It's an overshoulder one so you can have it with you wherever you are in the garden, wherever you are on your washing line

So let's get started. I'm Christine of Christine's Crafts.com and this channel is dedicated to crafting on a budget

So the first thing you're going to need is a bit of doweling. Now I've made mine 12 inches long

So that's what we're going to run with, a 12 inch long piece of dowel stick basically

and then you're going to need your fabric. Now, the first thing you're going to need is to think about straps

Now, you can make them out of your fabric like I have done here, or you can buy some webbing and use straps that you can buy

I've made mine 8 inches wide, so that I'll end up with a 2 inch wide strap

and the length of mine are 47 inches. But you need to make yours so it fits beautifully on your hip

so it's easy to pull your pegs out. So you need to measure across your body and decide on the length

minus 47. So your main piece of fabric needs to be 14 inches wide and 53 inches long. And that goes with the 12 inch piece of dowel

So once you've got your main piece of fabric, fold it in half so there's two short sides meet up

Make sure those right sides are facing each other. And just take your time to get it lined up and smooth

And then you're going to clip or pin all the way along your end

edge, the long edge. And then once you're happy with it, you're going to repeat on the

other long edge. And you'll not be surprised to learn that once you've pinned them, you need

to sew along them. Remembering to reverse at either end to get a good solid seam that

won't unravel. And just sew all the way along one side and then all the way along the other

side. I used a half inch seam allowance. Once you've sewn them, go to the edge where the

is folded and just cut that corner off. Be careful not to get too close to your stitches

but it'll just reduce the bulk so that it'll look better when you turn it out

So your next job to do is to turn that out. So you've got the right sides on the outside

And make sure when you pull it through, you do do those corners really well

You want to push them out so that it make a good corner You could always use a chopstick if you struggling but mine have gone quite well just using my little finger Once it all through I recommend taking it over to the ironing board and giving it a good press so that you ready for the next stage

Now before we do any more with the bag, we're going to think about the straps. If you've bought webbing, leave this step completely

But if you're making them out of your fabric, we are now going to be able to

going to make those straps. So what you're going to do is take your fabric over to the ironing

board and place it so that you've got the right side down. Okay and you're going to be working

along the length of it, pressing some folds. So place it right side down and then fold it in

half all the way along the length, exactly in half. And then once you've got a good crisp fold

open it up and then we're going to fold it again. You're going to take each side and fold it so it just comes to the middle

You'll see I've made sure I haven't quite reached the middle and then repeat with the other side

And then once they're all pressed you can fold them both in and you can see how your strap is going to look and that it's going to be two inches wide

So I recommend that you pin or clip all the way along the length to keep it up

to keep it nice and tidy. And then you're going to sew along the length of your strap

about an eighth of an inch from that edge and an eighth of an inch from the other edge

and you'll end up with some very professional looking strap. So as you can see, once you've sewn

it really does look like a professional strap. And that's now ready for attaching to the bag

as we're ready to do that. So back to our bag and you're going to get the open end of your bag

and you're going to measure from that open end. Now if you've used a thin dowel like me

I've found that two and a half inches down is a good distance. If you've used a really thick piece of dowel

you may need to go a little bit further down, so maybe three or three and a half inches

But if it's just a small dowel, two and a half inches is fine. And just pin across

and keep measuring all the way across So you marking a straight line And you then going to sew along that straight line exactly as it is so you sewing with the right side of the fabric on the outside

You're just going to get a good tidy seam along there. So as you can see my dowel is really small

If yours is fat you may need to measure a little bit further down

So take it over to the machine and sew across. And now we're forming a pocket for that dowel to go in

So the next thing to do is to fold over by about half an inch all the way around the top edge

Now I recommend taking it over to your ironing board and pressing and then you get a good tidy edge

That's up to you but you can see what I mean by just folding it over

A good half inch and then once you've pressed it we're ready

ready to sew this pocket closed. So the first thing you're going to need is your dowel

place it in the pocket and it should close nicely around it. But we also need to put our

straps in there. So you need to get your strap, take one end and place it inside the pocket

and just pop it down right behind the dowel. You want it to go right down to the seam that

you sewed. So there's plenty in there. Now where you place your straps is up to you

You can measure in from either end and just make sure the same distance in from each end

But I've positioned mine so the outer edge of the strap is an inch and a half from the end of the bag

So the outer edge of the strap is an inch and a half from the end of the bag

And then pin it in place. So you're going through all the layers

both sides of the pocket and the strap. And you put a pin on that edge to hold it

And now you need to do the same from the other side of the bag. Just be careful, really careful not to twist your strap

So run your fingers all the way along and make sure there are no twists and turns in that strap

So again, you're measuring in an inch and a half and pin all the way through all the layers

And then you're going to pin all the way along the top of that pocket. and sew all the way along the top of that pocket Now I recommend as you go over the straps you do an extra little bit of stitching So just reverse and then forward again It just going to give

it a bit more strength. You don't have to, but I do recommend it. So then over to your

machine and whizz along that seam. And then once you've done that, all we need to do is to

form the actual bag so that you can get your clothespins or pegs in there. So as you can see

that's sewn and it's all really secure and that's going to last for ages. The oldest one of

mine is a few years old now. So now we need to form the pocket. So you're going to fold up the

bottom of the fabric to form that pocket. Now again there's a little bit of choice here as to how

far up you come and how big you make the pocket. But if you're working with my size, you might

as well stick with me and I've folded mine up 11 inches and that works really well and gives

you a nice easily accessible pocket with loads of space in it to put your clothes pins or pegs

So again it's your choice, you clip or peg those edges together and what matters here is you

just keeping those edges lined up together so that you get a nice edge when you finish

Repeat on the other side. And then all you're going to do is sew about an eighth of an inch from the edge to form those seams

So you're top stitching and forming the seams at the same time

So make sure you reverse and do a good bit of securing work at the end of each seam

because they're going to take quite a bit of hammer from you pushing your hands in and out of the pocket

So make sure you get a good clean edge. sew along it about an eighth of an inch from the edge and that will be it you will have formed your clothespin or peg bag and it's yours to go off and use and you'll find you will never look back it's great having your clothes pins on you at all times so as you work up and down your washing line they're always available so thank you for watching and i hope you really enjoy your clothespin bag and that you enjoy all my videos so if you have enjoyed it

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