Knitting Bag DIY with Needle Pockets!

To be honest with you, I had no intentions of making a knitting bag this weekend when I sat down for a day of sewing.

However, after fixing a few items of clothing, I was sorting through my fabric (which is buried under all of my knitting and yarn), and I came across the fabric that I used for my banquette project. It’s a sturdy black and grey upholstery fabric in a kind of quatrefoil pattern. Since I was rather annoyed at having to throw all of my knitting on the floor to get to my fabric,  I figured that this fabric would be perfect for creating a knitting bag for all of my needles and wool.

Originally, I was just going to do a plain drawstring bag, but then I decided to go one step farther and make two small pockets on the inside. I figured that these could be used for the needles so that they are easily accessible within the bag. I also made a drawstring closure for the bag so that everything would stay in there nice and snug.

Oh, and did I mention that this will take you less than an hour to do!? It’s a perfect easy DIY for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I currently have about 8 large balls of yarn with 4 sets of needles, and they all fit in here comfortably. If you have more yarn, then add a few inches to your bag. If you have less, I would suggest keeping it around this size, as I’m sure your collection of yarn will grow! Alternately, if you had a large collection of yarn, you could make a couple different bags and organize them based on the composition of the yarn, or even based on colour!

To make 1 knitting bag you will need:

approx. 1/2m sturdy upholstery fabric in the colour/pattern of your choice
matching thread
2.5-3′ of ribbon or cord for the drawstring
Fray Stop

Here’s how to do it:

1. To make the bag, I started by folding my fabric in half and cutting out a rectangle that measured roughly 16×20″.
2. For the pockets, I just used any remaining scrap pieces of fabric that I had. The longer one measures approximately 16×4″ and the shorter one, approximately 9×4″.
3. Take your long pocket piece and with the right side facing down, press the edges back 1/4″ on both of the long sides and the bottom. On the top of the pocket, press the fabric back 1/2″. Repeat for the short pocket piece. 
4. Take one piece of the fabric for your bag and with the wrong side facing up, pin your pockets (right side up) to the bag, leaving about 3 inches of space from the top of the bag. 
5. Staring with your long pocket, sew a scant 1/8″ border around the perimeter of your pocket (except for the top!) in order to secure it to the bag. Repeat for the short pocket. You will be able to see the pocket stitching from the outside - since the needle pockets are on the inside of the bag - but I made this the back of my bag, and because I chose a matching thread, it’s hardly noticeable. 
6. Now, with the two pieces of your bag fabric, place right sides together and sew around the perimeter of your bag, once again leaving the top open. My seam allowance was about 3/8″.
7. Now it’s time to cut the hole for the drawstring to come out of. Cut a small rectangle in the centre front of your bag about 1 1/2″ inches down from the top. Cover the cut edges that you just made with fray stop so that it won’t continue to rip as you use the bag. Since you have to wait for the fray stop to dry, now is a good time to cut your drawstring ribbon on an angle and cover the ends of that with fray stop as well. Allow the fray stop to dry until it is no longer tacky. 
8. Now, with your bag still inside out, fold over the top edge about 1″ and sew the folded edge down, using a 1/4″ seam allowance. 
9. Now, Turn your bag right-side out. Attach a safety pin to the end of your ribbon and thread it through the hole that we made for the drawstring, pulling it all the way around until it comes out again.
10. And that’s it! you’ve just made a cute little knitting bag to organize all of your yarn and needles!

I was really happy with how the bag came out, and loved how easy it was to put together. It fit all of my knitting supplies perfectly!

Yay for cute storage solutions! Let me know what you think of my knitting bag, and if you would make one of your own!

xo, tess.