I’m revisiting the Lego Sack today and sharing the promised tutorial so that you can make one yourself! This really has been a great little bag and very helpful in playing with and packing Lego away. Read more about the first Lego Sack here.
Before I go on, I need to stress that this ingenious sack is NOT my original idea. Mothers and Grandmothers have been making these for their kids to store Lego in for years. My guess is that it originated with someone using an old sheet to keep Lego mess to a minimum, and the drawstring sack idea evolved from there. This pattern, however, is of my own workings out 🙂
One large piece of fabric for the exterior (at least 1 metre/1 yard square)
Carefully cut buttonhole open using a seam ripper.
Sew around pinned edge using a 1/2″ seam. Leave a 3″ gap for turning.
To make the curved edges of your sack sit nicely, clip into the seam allowance around the entire edge of the circle. Clips should be 1/2″ – 1″ apart. Be careful not to cut your seam!
Topstitch around the entire circle, about 1/8″ from the edge, stitching the opening closed.
Make casing for drawstring by stitching 2″ in from the edge of the fabric,making sure that the two buttonholes sit in between both rows of stitching.
A much, much easier way to do this is to invest in a bias binding maker…they are GREAT! Very affordable (I think about $15 each?) and make light work of making binding. The one I used for this project is an 18mm made by Clover. The pink one – 18mm is used for the 1 1/2″ wide strip of fabric and is the size I use most often when making clothing. (Nicole Mallalieu has a great tutorial showing how to use these cool gadgets on her blog).
Take one drawstring strip and fold in half, length wise once again so that raw edges of the strip are enclosed. Sew down opened edge of the strip, close to the edge to secure. Repeat with second strip.
Attach a safety pin to one end of one drawstring and thread through the casing by inserting it into one of the buttonholes and threading it around half of the circle until it reaches the second buttonhole.
Take second drawstring and insert through the opposite side of the casing. There should be two ends of drawstring protruding from each buttonhole.
Tie the two ends of drawstring together in a knot. Repeat for other ends of drawstring.
Fill up with Lego…
Pull the drawstrings…
Tie into a bow and hang up!