The easiest bag gusset ever
December 13, 2009
If you need a bag and you need one quickly and the gift you need the bag for is a bit bulky – have no fear, the easiest bag gusset is here.
First take your fabric- ideally one long piece which is double the height of your finished bag, a bit wider and a good bit longer to allow for the gusset and finishing the top of the bag. That is a bit vague, I know, but this is a quick gusset job 5 minutes before the party and not a precise pattern. Fold some fabric around your gift and make a guesstimate.
I have just ripped this from a cotton table cloth I bought at a jumble sale a while ago and as you can see I haven’t ironed it. You should iron your fabric because it will make your gift bag look better.
Next match your sides and tops and fold up the bottom fold. In this picture I have folded up 7-ish cm and this will make a gusset of 14-ish cm
Pin the fabric you have folded and go to your sewing machine. I hope you like your machine and aren’t afraid of it!
Mine is a Singer 319K which is a beautiful old thing in a cabinet which is out in our living room all the time. She sews beautifully but someone does keep twiddling the tension dial as you will see in a minute…
Choose your usual seam allowance and start sewing from the top edge down towards your fold. Stitch just over the fold
then reverse stitch a bit then go forward again to the end of the fold. You need to reinforce this join because this is where the weight of whatever you put in the bag will hang from. You see the needle thread tension? Pesky kids.
Now turn your fabric and sew from the bottom of the other side back up to the top – reinforcing the join as you did before. No picture for this because I am sure you know what I mean.
You should now have something that looks like this
Turn it inside out and you will see that you have created a gusset
which is twice as deep as the fold you made.
In the bag is my very well thumbed and well loved copy of Delia Smiths Complete Cookery Course and it holds it easily.
Now finish the top with a tie or a drawstring or however you like and fill the bag with the gift.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy. A very easy bag gusset.
December 13, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Wow this IS very simple. Thank you so much for posting this. Now I just have to wrap my head around how this works in terms of a lined bag and I’m good to go!
December 13, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Thanks for reading! I’m not sure if this would work for a lined bag but if I think of a way I will let you know.
I have used it with thicker fabric for a drawstring bag and the thickness at the bottom of the bag is great for pushing eyelets through.
December 6, 2011 at 11:56 pm
[...] new bags needed sewing when Miss Froo grew old enough to want presents. I sew the bags with the Easiest bag gusset in the world which I had been using for a while but used as one of my first posts on this blog way back in [...]