Canvas Bag Tutorial: Part 1 - Cutting Out the Pattern

     So, I have this canvas bag that I use to tote all of my stuff around for church. I love it to bits, but it's as old as the hills and starting to show it's age. To help solve my problem I thought I could whip up a new bag based on the design of my old bag.

     These next few weeks I will be walking you all through the steps I took to making it! To make the bag I bought 1.5 yards of 45" wide home decor fabric and 2 yards of cotton fabric for lining. I bought way too much, though! Really, all you need is a yard of the home decor fabric and 2/3 of the cotton. After studying my old bag and measuring it I came up with a pattern! To make my pattern I traced the dimensions of my pieces on old wrapping paper.

 Then I cut it out and pinned the pieces onto my fabric, using them as a guide of where to cut.

These are the pieces you need to cut out:

Canvas:
1 - 30" X 10" for the body (you can make this easier on yourself by cutting out a 15 X 10 rectangle and then cutting on a fold - just don't cut the fold!)
2 - 5" X 13" for the side panels
2 - 4" X 25" for the straps
1 - 4" X 20" for a reinforcement strip to attach the straps
1 - 10" X 10" for the outside pocket

Cotton:
1 - 30" X 10" for the lining
2 - 5" X 13" for the lining
2 - 8" X 6" for the inside pocket
1 - 10" X 10" for the lining of the outside pocket

     For the next step in this project go here.