Making a yoga bag - getting started

Today, I'm starting a tutorial on how to make the yoga bag. It's going to be in 7 parts, each part showing one small step. Today, in part 1, I'm just talking about all the pieces that need to be cut and the tools that will be used to make the bag.

Why yoga bags? I'm making them because I find they make particularly good gifts.


(1) They serve a good purpose. They make storing and carrying your yoga mat more convenient. Without one, my yoga mat would unroll itself in the closet and carrying it around was kind of annoying because it's a long and awkward shape and doesn't fit properly in a regular bag.

(2) You have some freedom in choosing fabrics for the bag. I find that people who do yoga are inherently a little more open minded and easy going than average. Also, since most people don't usually carry their yoga bags around every day, the recipient of the gift would probably still be ok with a bag that's not exactly their favourite colour or style.

(3) You can make parts or all of your yoga bag from scraps of fabric that you have around. From an environmental and de-cluttering perspective, it's always good to make use of scraps.

Now that we've clarified that, the first thing to do is cut the pieces of fabric that we need for the bag. Again, I'm basing this on Amy Butler's Nigella yoga bag. The main difference here is that I'm not making a lining and I've added a drawstring top. The strap is also a little thinner (because I didn't have enough fabric to cut the 14" x 34" piece the pattern calls for) and I'm adding a bit of trim for the top of the pocket.

Here are what the pieces look like:

Clockwise from top-left, the pieces are:

• 34" x 12" for the strap (yellow)
• 19" x 2.5" for the trim on the pocket (purple)
• 2 circles cut according to the Amy Butler Nigella yoga bag pattern (purple)
• 2 pieces that are 19" x 1.5" (or one piece 38" x 1.5") for the drawstring (pink)
• 19" x 5" for the drawstring casing on the top of the bag (pink)
• 19" x 12" for the pocket (cream)
• 27" x 19" for the body of the bag (cream)

Here are the other things I'm using:

• pins
• measuring tape
• thread (I'm going for a whimsical look on my bag so I'm using pink thread)
• bobbins (I want to use up as many of these as I can to free up some of these bobbins)
• seam riper
• needle (some hand stitching is involved to attach the circular bottom)
• sewing machine (not shown :p)
  

That's enough writing for one day. Tomorrow, we'll make the drawstring and the strap.