Knight Birthday Party: Make your Own Drawstring Treat Bags

I was looking for a way for the knights to be able to carry the treasures earned from our party games with them.... how hard could it be to sew your own drawstring treat bags?

I cruised the remnants section of our local fabric store for some brown textured yet flexible fabric and scored.  It was easy enough to turn over the edges and sew place for the strings. It was also easy to fold the fabric in half and cut out rectangles for the bags.  (Mine were 71/4 inches wide by 91/4 inches long, with 1.5 inches folded over for the drawstring seam). Then it got trickier, but mostly from my own mistakes.

First tricky part... I couldn't decide what to use for the cordage that goes over the shoulder.  Worried that I already spent too much on the party, I wanted to find a real bargain. Whatever it was, I'd need at least a bit over a yard per person, as measured on my kids.  I couldn't find anything. So, I bought a skien of thick yarn and braided it.  I sewed one piece to each side, then tied the ends over the shoulders of our guests as they arrived to ensure a comfortable fit.  HOWEVER, it took a REALLY long time to do all that braiding.  Way too long.

Next tricky part... the kind of drawstring that the kids are used to using has ends on both sides of the bag so they pull on both sides to close the bag. This requires TWO strings that are long enough to go through the bag and have a couple inches sticking out on both sides.  You insert the strings in opposite directions, so that you have FOUR string ends sticking out when all is done, two on each side.  I messed this up by not buying enough drawstring, then not measuring carefully.

I'm sure "next time" I make drawstring bags, things will go much smoother... :)

One more thing... round the top corners of the bags a bit so the drawstring moves more freely...