Itty Bitty Boxy Bags! A Great Quick Gift Idea. Perfect For Fish Extender Gifts!

Hello everyone, welcome to the ELCA Roots YouTube channel. Today's tutorial goes over something I've done hundreds of times, yes, hundreds of times. Well, let me show you what we're doing and then I'll tell you the story of why I did it. this over 200 times, so today we're going to go over how to make the cutest little box

bags

you've ever seen. Well, these things are adorable and you can see that I attached them a little like a spiral rubber bracelet. These things are so many. funny now look in the last few hours i made this i made this vinyl version i made this flower version yeah and i also made a couple of other ones I mean these things are addictive they are a real scrappy scrappy project and we know how much I love my scrappy projects on this channel.

I don't like to waste anything, but I want what I use my scraps to be really pretty, so why did I make over 200 of these? Well a couple of years ago I went on my first cruise and it was actually a Disney cruise and any of you who have been lucky enough to go on a Disney cruise have probably heard of

fish

extension groups, now they are generally They organize through Facebook and you find your cruise and then you join these groups and then everyone in the groups makes little

gift

s for other cabins and then you sneak out in the middle of the night and you go leave the

gift

s and the little

bags

in it, it's quite a matter. if you've been on a disney cruise you know what i'm talking about if you're researching how to go on your first disney cruise this will help you if you're so eager to have a

great

idea

for those

fish

extender

gifts

so in my first On the cruise I decided that not only did I want to make something for everyone in my fish outreach group, but I also wanted to make something for everyone in all the fish outreach groups, so yes, I made over 200 of these little bags of boxes and I was just a lot like candy on the cruise, it was so much fun and when I saw people like when I saw grandpa walking her on the cruise with this on his wrist, my heart melted, it was the sweetest thing in the world to see people. using this cute little thing I made and about people I didn't even know, it was one of the first times I made something and saw other people wearing it, not because they felt like they needed to show me that they were wearing it. what I made, but because they really loved it, it was also the only time in my entire sewing career where I actually thought about selling things I made, but then decided not to, so here is one of the Boxee bags I made for that cruise on this one was a bonus and you can see I used my Silhouette cutter, you can also use a cricket or anything else, and I cut this vinyl and, you know, I made a heat transfer vinyl, I put it on the back, That's how it was.

It's a lot of fun, so for today's tutorial I resized this by just half an inch and you can see it's a little bit bigger. I mean, I don't even know if you can tell, but this one is just a little bit wider than the originals and the reason I did that was because these originals, although they are super cute and super fun, couldn't fit an ID card or a credit card so just by adjusting them half an inch we can now open this up, I have chopsticks and I have a Costco card so this size will fit your credit card, your ID card, your cash, your chopsticks , kind of like the basics, yeah, he sucked cute, I mean, look at that ass. before we start, if you are not already subscribed, please consider clicking subscribe below if you have any questions or comments, leave it in the comments section if you ever like this video, please like it if you have any other big pressure. questions you really want to make sure I answer email me at Jessica at Oak work easy and I'll get back to you right away okay let's get off to a good start so let's talk about the requirements for making these box bags now I want to encourage you to get very creative with Where you go with these square bags, I'll give you the base of the basic square bag in miniature form, but you can take this to so many other levels and I'm excited to see what you do.

So to make these box bags like this, here's what you need first for the outer fabric. You will need one six-and-a-half-inch by five-inch cut and two two-inch by two-inch cuts. These will be the side tabs of your bag and this will be the outside of your square bag lining fabric. You will need two three-and-a-half-inch by five-inch cuts. You will need a cut of fusible fleece. or batting or felt that you can glue to the outer fabric. If you are using vinyl as the exterior, you do not need to use any type of fusible fleece, but if you are using a cotton quilt, I suggest reinforcing it.

Kinda, this cut will be the same as the outer fabric, six and a half inches by five inches. You can see in this original punching bag that I used quilt type batting and I just gave it a very

quick

padding and that kept the batting up to par.

perfect

fabric, so having hardware here is totally optional. You can use this keychain with a small lobster clasp. This is a one inch keychain with a half inch lobster clasp. This makes it really useful because you can clip it to your bag. You can clip it to your backpack, this is a

great

way to use it on other accessories or you can simply directly attach a 1/2 inch swivel hook to the side tabs while sewing.

I'll show you how. To do that in the bag today, another totally optional but super fun thing to add to this bag are these little rubber bracelets. In fact, I buy packages of them at Claire's. Claire's has sales all the time and lots of really cool designs. I stock up on them when I see a sale and that way I have a lot of different options. These just make it fun because you can put it on your wrist, you can walk with it, it won't come off, it fits hazards of all sizes. It's just a really fun little extra that's totally optional.

You will also need a zipper for this bag. I really like to have zippers that are too long for the need and I'll show you why when we're in the top sewing step, for example, this is a 9 inch zipper. I would suggest getting a 6 inch or longer zipper for this and just remember that we are going to trim it. Some tools that are really useful today will be small 1 inch ones. per 6 inch ruler I'll use 8012 micro text needles, you'll want to use any kind of reasonable marking tool, some clover clips, and a hand sewing needle and thread.

This is optional. This is just to close the hole at the end. You don't have to use a needle to sew by hand, you can do it on your machine. I just really like the finish of the hand-sewn closures and I'll show you how to do it at the end of the video. Okay, so first. Let's go ahead and fuse our fusible fleece to our outer if you're using quilt batting instead, right now, once you go to your machine and just give it a light quilt over the fabric just to keep it in place. I like to line up my fusible fleece with the rough, sticky side facing up and then I take my Now what happens with the fusible fleece is that Isak when the glue melts and shrinks it.

It likes to shrink a little if you're using a thin fabric, especially if you're using a fabric that doesn't interact with any type of woven interfacing, the fabric may like to wrinkle to help with that. use this wooden clapper and I'll show you how I do it, so first I grab my iron and I run it through

quick

ly. I'm just trying to melt the glue and when it starts to melt, then I take my clapper and I rub it gently, I'm not pressing hard, I'm actually just letting the weight of the clapper do the work and then I'll do it again, iron a little bit very lightly and then I rub the clapper very lightly, this has In my opinion, been the best way to adhere the fusible fleece without the fabric warping because it is a very frustrating feeling.

Well, this part is good. Now let's go ahead and prepare our side tabs so our pet side tabs measure two inches by two inch pieces of outer fabric, go ahead and turn those right side down, fold them in half anyway and press, do the Same with the other tab, open them and fold each of the long edges to find the central fold, here we go. I like to just pin the pleats closed like this so they don't lose their pleat. Now go ahead and put them to the side, so now take the outer panel, the zipper and the lining panel, take the outer and put it on. your zipper right side down and simply attach it to the top of your outer panel.

Now take your lining panel and place your lining panel right side down over that zipper. Make sure you match the vertical edges to your outer panel and then simply include this in the clips at the top of the zipper tape, if that helps go ahead and clip the lining side to the outside just to make sure everything fits good and in order. Now we're going to take this to the sewing machine and we're going to sew along the top edge of the zipper, we're going to add a quarter inch seam allowance. We are attaching the outside of the zipper and the lining panel, so before we begin, be sure to put on the zipper foot if you have a machine like mine that you like. eating thinner fabric or causes a lot of threads to bunch up at the bottom of your project, take a piece of fabric and simply sew it together before sewing on our unit, these are called leaders, this simply prepares the thread for your project, ok ? now take your unit and we're going to sew a quarter inch seam along the outside edge of the zipper tape, so now we're just going to take our lining panel and our outside panel and fold them over so they're with the reverse together. and you can go ahead and press along the seam next to the zipper.

Now we're going to take this back to the machine and we're just going to sew along this top edge to the side of the zipper with an eighth of an inch seam allowance. Alright, now take the unit that has the zipper and take the other lining panel, grab the end of the outer fabric that is not sewn to the zipper and fold it right side together with the outside to the other edge of the tape of the zipper. tape the edge that hasn't been sewn yet, so come back up like this, make sure the sides are lined up and pin them in place.

Now turn the unit over so it has the lining side up and the zipper back. With the side facing up, take the other panel of lining and place the right side down, lining it up with the top of the zipper edge that is pinned and again making sure the sides are aligned with these sides of the other panel lining, just as we are now. We're going to take this to the sewing machine and we're going to sew along the top edge of the zipper tape with a quarter inch seam allowance. Now we're going to separate the lining panel from the outside, so this is where we have a longer zipper.

It's actually very helpful: open the zipper all the way if you're using zipper tape, make sure to sew the ends together so the zipper doesn't come off. Now flip this over so you have easy access to the side we just sewed. I like to pin the sides of the outside onto the lining, now press along the zipper that you just sewed like this, okay, now we can take this to the machine and we're going to sew with an eighth of a seam allowance. inch. right along this other side of the zipper, okay, so this should be what you have now, you have the zipper attached to the lining and to the outside, now we're going to flip everything over so we have the wrong side facing out, so the wrong side of your exterior and the wrong side of your lining, put your lining panels together so your exterior is on the opposite side and line up the long raw edges of your lining panel like this and clip them in place now mark yourself about a two inch opening right in the middle of the edge of the lining we are going to use this to turn the bag inside out.

I know it's a small hole but it's a small bag. You'll be fine now we'll go to the sewing machine and sew in a quarter inch seam allowance from the end to the mark on both sides, leaving this center stitch open again. I'm going to use a leading piece of fabric here because the lining fabric is thin and my machine will eat it. Now let's prepare the side tabs. We'll take both to the sewing machine and sew along both folded edges with a one-eighth inch seam allowance. Once you have the side tabs ready, you can decide how you want to add them. a hook now you don't have to add any hardware you can just leave them with side tabs and they will be

perfect

ly fine so the lobster clasp keychain is something you can add later if you don't want it.

You don't have to sew it on the bag now because it's just a keychain that you can slide to the side tabs when you need it. If you want to use the swivel hook, you will need to add it now aswe would do. I can't add it to the bag in one step. I think this option works very well with backpacks and purses. The swivel hook is definitely great with bracelets, but it can't be removed, so decide now which one you want to use for this. tutorial I'm going to show you how I install the swivel hook, take one of your side tabs and put it over the end of the swivel hook and close it like this.

You can grab a clip if you want and just clip it on. now also fold the tab on the other side in half and pin the raw edges together, so now we have our square bag ready to sew. What I like to do is pull the zipper halfway up the fabric and then gather the open ends together like now I'm going to go to the sewing machine real quick and I'm going to sew these open ends as close to the fabric as I can just to make it easier to pin them all together in the next step, so now don't worry so much about the fabric.

We are only concerned with the ends of these zippers, we are not sewing any fabric right now, we are just sewing the zipper. I re-stitched if you want to make sure it really stays together, so move the zipper to get it right. a little more than half open inside the bag, you can take a look in there and see that the zipper is not right against the edge because I'll make it harder to sew, but it's more than half open, okay, now pull the sides. your lining slightly so that the seam in the middle lines up with the center of your zipper tape like this, now all I do is put my fingers on the outside and pull that to meet the edges of my lining, like this, just you want a nice flat edge with the lining seam going up and down the zipper, I do the same for the other side, so I just pull it so the seam meets the center of the zipper and then pull the outside and I just flatten it out. outwards, it should naturally fold like this, so this is what you should have: the seam with the opening for the lining should go directly towards the center of the zipper, the outside should line up perfectly with the lining, like this now I like Add my swivel hook on the open edge of the zipper and you want to make sure you add this on the outside side so make sure you have the outside side facing up and you will slide the hook and tab on the side so that the folded side is pointing towards the center of the bag, you will slide it between your zipper tape and the outside fabric just like that, don't slide it on the lining side, you want this on the outside side, you can use your clip to include the zipper. and the lining all together there we go now we do the same for the other side the other side I don't have a hook so I'm going to do the same the folded edge of the side tab is going to Go between the outside and the zipper tape like this, lining up the raw edge with the raw edge of my fabric and pin it in place, so now we have the outer zipper lining with these side tabs inside the outer unit. to the sewing machine and we're going to sew along both edges with a quarter inch seam allowance.

Now, if you have excess on the zipper, you can go ahead and cut it off, so now we're going to turn everything over. bag right side out through that hole we left in the lining, just be nice and gentle, make sure you use that hole in the opening of the lining to get the corners out of your outside, okay, now you should have something like this , this little plane. unit, we are going to turn it over so that it is with the lining side facing out. Now we can go to the sewing machine and simply close this hole with a top stitch.

I like to clip it together first. The fabric should be folded naturally on itself with the sides wrong to create. this fold along the top, you can simply sew along this hole with a one-eighth inch seam allowance. Now you should have the lining side of your bag facing out, grab a small ruler and an erasable marking tool. Now let's frame these corners the way I like. To do this, I like to bring out the corner so the seam goes straight down and I have this little triangle like this so you can see. I have the top on this edge, the bottom on this edge, the seam goes up. and down into a little triangle, so now we're going to mark a horizontal line that crosses the triangle right there.

It will be a horizontal line one inch wide. Now you can make this bigger or smaller if you want a true square. boxxy look increase the size instead of one inch from side to side, increase to an inch and a quarter from left to right, that's what we're measuring from left side to right, one inch is good for me, so just I line it up so I have my three inch mark on the left. I have my four inch mark touching to the right. I'm going to take my friction pen and I'm going to draw a line along the edge of my ruler, so that's what I have I like to take a paper clip and then just clip that corner into place like this again.

You have a lot of freedom here, if you want to make it bigger you can make it more square, if you want to make it smaller it's going to be less square, so let's do that for the four corners, so on the next one again I put my finger there to making sure it spreads out really nice and then I make a nice triangle and then I'm going to mark to have one. inches from left to right, okay, once you have all four corners marked and trimmed, let's go to the sewing machine, we're just going to sew along our marked lines, so this is what your bag looks like.

Now these little edges we just leave, they're so small that cutting them doesn't make any sense and they actually provide a great structure for the inside of the bag, so just turn it over and make sure you get them out. corners of the box and there you have your little square baby bag, if you want to clip it to one of these fun clips all you have to do is clip it to the plastic just like that and this is a really fun little bag and I've already done it , if you are interested in sewing the lining panel hole closed by hand sewing, I will show you how to do it again, turn it so that it is lining side facing out.

You can see this is a previous bag I made and I already boxed the corners that's fine grab a hand sewing needle this is just let the black/gold clover needles size 9 to 12 I'm not picky about my needles I just I need something that will make a hole in the fabric, grab some thread, I can I'll use this hot pink thread just to help you see what I'm doing better. I also always sew with a leather symbol on my middle finger. The needles are sharp and hurt when they prick your skin, so this just protects it, so take a good amount. of your thread you can use the same thread that you used on your machine go ahead and thread your needle and then just pull the ends of the thread together so I just grab the ends of the thread with my left hand and hold them against my needle with my Wrap it with your right finger around the needle a few times and then pull it towards the opposite end of the needle so it slides along with the thread and then you'll have a nice little knot at the bottom, don't grab the bag that has the hole.

Whichever side you start on, pull, get the needle under the lining and then push it to the top of the lining on that seam, just like that. Now it will help if you can trim the edges so that they are folded down. What I do is I just stick my fingers inside that hole, give it a little tug, roll the edges of the fabric over itself and then I just put some clips in to hold the edges down, so what I do is I insert my needle. on one side of the lining panel that has that fold at the top and then I just feed it through that edge and pull it out.

Now I go to the opposite facing panel at the top edge of the opposite facing panels and insert it through its folded crease. behind where my previous stitch came out and then I just push it in and just repeat this process all the way down changing which side I'm putting my needle on and always inserting my needle slightly behind where it came out, you're just going back and forth between the panels of lining, I actually hand sewed the holes closed on all the baby box bags I made for my kits, but I really like hand sewing.

This is a great task if you're just sitting in your chair watching. a movie you want to do something with your hands while you're sitting there and you can see if you're using matching thread you won't see the thread at all. I'm using hot pink thread on white fabric and this is about as much of the thread as you see and that's probably because those stitches are a little sloppy. Once you get to the end, I just insert it one more time into the opposite edge just like that and then I'll do a second one. sew it through each edge, pull it out and then put my needle through that loop before I pull it all the way tight and then just make a nice little knot like that, then I'll take my needle and stick it into the lining so it goes between the lining and the outside and I'll just push the needle in as far as I can without losing it, making sure not to go through the outside fabric, pull it out from any random place and then just hold it close to the fabric in that place, now you can manipulate it and then that thread will be lost between the lining and the exterior and then you can flip it X back into place again and that's it, like I said.

If you had matching yarn you wouldn't even see these stitches, it's a beautiful way to finish a bag so here we go, it's a very quick, fun and easy project so I know many of you are probably wondering what for they use this. Personally I will use it when all I need is my driver's license, some cash and some lipstick when I go for a run or walk around the neighborhood and I only need the essentials but I don't want to bring a bag. For me, it's great to have this on hand. We also use it for quarters and pennies when we go to Disney World for the pressed penny machines.

You can make so many modifications that you can adjust the size. You can adjust how much. You frame it to make it more

boxy

, less

boxy

, you can add Mickey ears, so I'm really excited about this because every time I post one of my

idea

s on YouTube, you guys take that idea and take it to the next level. I mean, it's amazing to see what you're doing with the basic instructions that I give you, so I'm really excited to see what you do with these little boxes, so thank you so much for sticking with this tutorial.

I hope it inspired you. go make baby box bags everywhere, don't forget we have an Eau Claire's Creatives Facebook group where members post all kinds of things they're making things from the videos, things that aren't from the videos , it's a great place to ask. questions feel inspired feel supported it's an amazing community. I'm very proud of that Facebook group, so if you're not a member yet, you're more than welcome to join our group. I hope you have a great rest of the week. and do something goodbye