Lined Drawstring Bags

I’ve got two Aurifil Artisan projects to share this week. First up are three super cute drawstring bags featuring the new Night Fancy collection by Victoria Findlay Wolfe for Free Spirit Fabrics.

I first came across Victoria’s series of double wedding ring quilts, and I’ve followed her ever since. She gave the keynote lecture at QuiltCon 2020, where she talked about how the idea of “play” is central to her quilting practice. She uses “15 minutes of play” regularly to get herself warmed up before making a quilt, and often those exercises lead to bigger ideas.

I received 4 fat quarters for this project — three of the prints from the collection plus one light purple solid. The yellow print in particular seemed to call out to be featured prominently rather than cut into strips. I was a bit stumped on where to start, so I turned to the folder on my hard drive where I’ve collected dozens of patterns over the years — some that I’ve made, and some that I haven’t. When I landed on Jeni Baker’s pattern (plus expansion pack) for lined drawstring bags, I knew it was the perfect fit!

In Victoria’s QuiltCon lecture, I also remember her talking quite a bit about her grandmother’s quilts, which were made not with cotton but with double knit polyester. So for my project, I thought it would be fun to incorporate some fabric that is more often used in garments. My sister recently had a pair of holey jeans that she was about to throw away…until I snagged them! The denim was just the thing for the bottom of the two larger bags.

Jeni’s pattern has tons of different size options, so it was fun to try out several of those. The small purple bag is the Snack size with the peek-a-boo lining modification. The yellow bag is the Everything size and the orange bag is the Project size, both with the bottom accent modification.

The pattern is simple and straightforward, and really fun to make. I’m looking forward to using these bags for special gifts this year!

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