You have reached the fifth and the final installment of the “Tween-y Bag” tutorial series.  All the hard work is over … all you have left are a few more minor details until you cross the finish line! Just take a look at the photo above; you’ve made all that already! YAY!  🙂

Here are the previous tutorials for a quick recap:

Part 1: Getting Started
Part 2: Making the Front Panel
Part 3: Making the Lining
Part 4: Making the Bag Strap and Drawstrings

Okay, time to get to work!  Now that you’ve done all the prep work, you’re ready to sew together two panels – the Front Panel and the Lining – to put the bag together.  Isn’t it great that everything is coming together? 

First, turn the Front Panel you made on Part 2 tutorial over to the wrong side so that the batting side is showing. The Lining that you made on Part 3 Tutorial should be showing the right side, with the pocket side facing out.

Shove the Lining in to the Front Panel. Align the top edges so that two panels fit perfectly together. You might have to put your hand in the bag to straighten the lining inside, to make sure that you have the Lining in perfectly, wrinkle free.

Pin around the top edges to secure the Front Panel and the Lining. As mentioned before, use as many pins as possible. The more you secure the fabrics, easier it will be to sew around them.

Here’s the fun part. After you finish sewing around and removed all the pins, yank out the Lining from inside the Front Panel. Next, from the opening on the bottom of the Lining (remember you kept a small section opened when you made the Lining?), bring the Front Panel and the Adjustable Strap through.

Sew together the opening of the bottom of the Lining, either by hand or by machine. (Hand-stitching will look better, but I usually just machine-sew the straight line at the bottom. I figured no can really see the inside of the Lining. However, if you are making it reversible, make sure to take the time to hand-sew them together as it shows on the outside.)

Take the Lining and put it back into the inside of the Front Panel.

Iron the Front Panel and Lining.

Insert the Drawstrings

This is the final step! You’re almost there!  Now, you’re ready to cast the Drawstrings through the Slots!

Put a safety pin on the end of one of the drawstrings.

Cast the drawstring through both both Drawstring Slots, all the way around the entire bag.

Take two loose ends of the Drawstring and sew them together.  Shuffle the Drawstrings around so that the sewn part will be hidden in the Drawstring Slot.

Repeat for the second Drawstring. For the second one, make sure that you start the insert of the Drawstring from the other opening.

That’s it!     You’ve just sewn your Tween-y Bag!  Congratulations!  I hope you had as much fun making this bag, as I had with creating the tutorial.  One of my favorite parts of this bag is that you can carry it as a drawstring bag, or carry it as a small, shoulder bag.  Because the strap is adjustable, you can change the style up, based on your mood or wardrobe.  The possibility is endless.

If you make this Tween-y Bag using the tutorial, I would love to hear your feedback! Please leave me a comment with your thoughts. If you have a blog and if you happen to feature the bag on it, I would love it if you can send me the link so that I can re-feature it on this blog.

Thank you so much for reading this tutorial, and please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information! 🙂