Introduction: Jewelry Bag With Inside Compartments

By Cheryl Casey Art
About: Artist and soap maker.

This is my first Instructable and I'll show you how to make a sweet and handy jewelry bag with inside compartments using fabric and sewing supplies. Great for travel and gorgeous on your dresser at home.

Materials needed:
2 fabric pieces size 11" x 11"
2 fabric pieces size 8" x 8"
chord or ribbon, 2 pieces, 30" each
thread

Tools needed:
sewing machine or needle and thread
ruler
pencil or pen
something to draw circles with (I'll be using a dinner plate and salad plate but will show alternate methods)
pencil compass or silver dollar
scizzors
pins

What would you stash in a little bag like this? Maybe sewing kit supplies with a little matching pin cushion in the center. What else?

Step 1: Cut the Pieces

I'll be using different coordinating fabric scraps for each piece. The purple with swirly vines will be the outside of the bag.

Starting with the fabric for the outside of the bag, lay it on the table with wrong side up, place your dinner plate on it and trace around. My dinner plate is 10 5/8" across.

You could also use a pencil compass and make a circle approximately 10 1/2" across.

If you don't have a big enough plate, bowl, or a pencil compass, just cut a strip of cardboard 6 inches long, stick a push-pin in one end and punch a hole 5 1/4" from the pushpin. Anchor the pushpin in the center of your fabric, place a pen or pencil in the hole and, holding the pushpin steady, drag the pencil around in a circle.

Make a second circle the same size, this will be the liner (lime green for mine). Cut them out.

Now repeat to make 2 smaller circles. I used a salad plate that was 7 7/8" across. Or you can punch another hole in the cardboard strip 4" from the pushpin. My fabrics were a different purple and flowery green.

Step 2: Sew the Circles

With right sides together, sew the two larger circles together, going around 1/4" from the outside edge. Leave a 1 1/2" opening.

Cut small notches in the seam allowance, about 1 1/2" apart, all the way around, being careful not to cut the seam you just sewed.

Turn right side out through the opening. Make sure the edges open all the way out to the seam in a nice neat circle.

Using a needle and thread, blind-stitch the opening closed.

Repeat with the small circles.

Step 3: Attach the Circles

Find the center of the large piece by making a half fold and then a quarter fold and placing a pin through the corner. Open out the piece and mark a small X where the pin is.

Repeat with the small piece.

Using the pencil compass or a silver dollar (or any other circular object that size) draw a circle that is 1 1/2" across in the center of the smaller piece.

Lay your larger piece on the table with the outside color facing down. Place the smaller piece directly in the center of the larger one by matching up the X's. Make sure the circle you just drew is facing up.

Pin the pieces together. Sew the two pieces together along the circle you drew.

Step 4: Make the Compartments

Place a ruler down the center of the small piece and make a few marks along it, enough to identify the center line of the piece.

Use pins to divide each side into three pie sections (for a total of six pie sections all the way around). You can kind of eye-ball it to get them as close to the same size as possible. The pins marking each of my pie sections were 3 5/8" apart.

For each pie section, sew a line from the circle you made in the previous step to the edge of the small fabric piece. The last photo shows the seams paintshopped with black so you can see what it should look like. But make sure your bobbin thread is the color of the outside of your bag (purple for mine) and the spool thread is the color of the lining (green for mine).

Step 5: Add the Drawstring

Make a channel for the drawstring by sewing all the way around the large piece, just outside the edge of the small piece, being careful not to catch the edges of the small piece in the seam.

Sew a second seam around, 3/8" out from the first seam, being careful to keep this same distance all the way around. Now you have a channel for your drawstring. (The first picture in this step illustrates the two new seams in black but, again, use bobbin thread and spool thread the match the two sides of your bag).

Cut a small slit in the outside fabric only, between the two seams. Cut another slit in the outside fabric only, between the two seams, but on the opposite side of the large circle.

With needle and thread, reinforce the edges of the hole with a whip stitch. Repeat for other hole.

Catch one end of the ribbon or chord (drawstring) in a safety pin and insert into one of the holes. Use the safety pin to push the chord through the channel, all the way around (ignore the other hole when you get to it, just go right past it). Tie the ends together in a simple knot. Repeat with the other chord starting in the other hole.

Step 6: Cinch It Up and You're Done!

Pull the strings to cinch up the bag. Notice how the pie shapes make little compartments inside the bag and there's a larger compartment in the middle.

It's ready to give to your Mom and now that you've made one, it's a quick, easy task to make another for your Granny, your sister, your aunt... (and yourself).

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