Pattern Review: Kuru Kuru Kinchaku Drawstring Bag
The other week, I was happily browsing Instagram and came across the Kuru Kuru Kinchaku Drawstring Bag and fell a little bit in love!
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The idea of choosing pretty fabrics and sewing them together to create a swirly pattern just looked like such fun. And it promised to be a quick make too!
I reached out to Kanako, and she very kindly sent me a complimentary copy of the pattern and I set to making one straight away!
The Pattern
The Kuru Kuru Kinchaku Drawstring Bag is available as a PDF pattern that includes nine pages.
The pattern includes cutting measurements for two height sizes (short and tall) and three different widths for each (small, medium and large). So that’s a total of six different bags that you can make!
Additionally, at the back of the pattern is a calculation sheet so that you can make a bag to your own specific measurements which could be very handy if you’re looking to make a birthday/Christmas gift bag!
Making the Kinchaku Bag
Because of the origami nature of the pattern, the first time making the pattern is always going to be trickiest and did cause me a little bit of head-scratching…I mean, look at the bag mid-make!!!
Thankfully, Kanako provides a video link with the pattern which I would highly recommend watching. It really helps to make sense of how the bag fits together and I can honestly say it’s a lot less complicated than it might look!
Once you’ve made the first one, you can see how quickly the bags come together and how easy it would be to make lots of them, if you needed them! And they open out to hold quite a lot, so would make a good project bag too.
I decided to make my first version (a short, small bag) using some Lotta Jansdotter fabrics I had lying around as I have a real thing for mustard and navy at the moment!
Kinchaku Tips & Ideas
The trickiest part of sewing the Kinchaku is sewing around the corner by stopping 1/4″ from the corner, lifting the presser foot with the needle-down and turning the fabric 90* before continuing to sew down the other side.
A couple of things that I’ve always found helpful when doing this is;
- Mark the fabric or use the sewing machine plate as a guide to stop 1/4″ from the edge of the fabric.
- Use something sharp and pointy – like a seam ripper – to ensure that the fabric is not bunched up before you continue sewing to prevent any puckers.
If you want to top-stitch around (it’s suggested as optional) then I would recommend turning the bag inside-out to do so. I find it easier to get a neater finish on the front by doing this. If you leave long thread tails, you can knot and bury them for a super-neat finish.
I’ve only made one bag so far, but there will certainly be more. I’m thinking a red-and-white tall version to make a candy-cane Christmas gift-bag! I might add interfacing to the strips/lining to give the bag a bit more structure, depending on what I will be using it for.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this useful, and if you fancy making your own don’t forget to go and check out the pattern here. If you’re looking for a bag that lays out flat, you can also check out my Stash’n’Go Tutorial.
S x
Today’s sky::: boiling hot and I feel like I’m melting!!!
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