Stitch it tonight a Bucket Bag: Sew up the perfect tote for all your essentials

This brightly coloured bag by Corinne Bradd is just the thing for packing up all your must- haves for the festive holiday. Easy to stitch and with a drawstring to close, it will look stylish and come in handy. It could even double up as a sack filled with presents under the tree! 

Essentials

•  Striped fabric, 120cm
•  2oz quilt wadding, 50cm
•  6mm wide cord, 200cm
•  4cm wide webbing, 100cm (optional)

Dimensions

• 40cm x 41cm 

Stitch a Bag

1. Cut a 85cm square from striped fabric and crease in half across the stripes. Trim a 42cm x 85cm piece of wadding and lay on one half of the wrong side of the fabric so one edge lies along the crease. Cut a 90cm length of cord and place along the crease. 
2. Fold the other half of the fabric over the crease line, to cover the cord and wadding. Pin the layers together under the ridge made by the cord before pinning the layers together at regular intervals. 
3. Use a zipper foot to sew directly along the side of the cord to make a piped top edge. Quilt the rest of the fabric along the stripes every 5cm to 7cm to hold the layers together and provide structure. Trim the edges of the fabric square if necessary and zig zag stitch along them. 
4. Cut eight 5cm x 8cm rectangles from striped fabric. Fold each one in half lengthways, right sides together, and sew along the long edge to make a tube. Turn each one out and press so the seam sits in the centre. Fold in 5mm on each raw edge and topstitch 2mm from the fold. 
5. Pin the flattened tubes to the bag, 3cm down from the piped top edge in a landscape position, at regular intervals, leaving a 1cm back seam allowance at either end of the quilted fabric. Topstitch them to the bag, on the long edge of each, to make cord channels. 
6. Fold the quilted fabric in half widthways, right sides together, and sew up the back seam with a 1cm seam allowance. Trim the ends of the piping and cover with a short length of bias binding or scrap of fabric slip stitched over the raw ends. 
7. Cut two 23cm squares from striped fabric for the bottom. Lay one piece face down followed by a piece of wadding the same size, with the second fabric square on top, right side up. Pin them together and zig zag stitch around all four edges. 
8. Find the centre of two opposite sides of the square and mark them with a pin. Match one mark to the back seam of the bag and sew the edge of the square to the bottom, stopping 1cm from either end. Find the centre of the front and stitch the opposite side of the square to this in the same way. The two remaining sides of the square can now be sewn to the rest of the quilted panel. 
9. Cut a 10cm x 100cm strip of striped print. Fold in 1cm on the short edges and tack. Fold in 1cm on each long edge and crease. Bring the long folded edges together and pin to make a 4cm wide strap. Iron fusible webbing inside the folded fabric to strengthen it, if required. Topstitch along both long sides, 2mm from the edge. 
10. Pin to either side of the bag, 4cm below the cord channels. Topstitch the bottom 4cm square of strap end to the bag, closing up the tacked ends as you go and reinforcing with a cross shape in the centre. Remove the tacking stitches. 
11. Create two small tabs from 5cm x 10cm rectangles, folded in half, right sides together and stitched down each side. Turn them out, fold in 5mm along the top edge and slip the ends of the remaining cord into each one. Topstitch them closed over the cord. Thread the cord through the channels at the top to finish.