Something to Make in June – Standish Quilters website join us and explore quilting

This Bottle Holder Project does involve a little bit of pattern drafting, but it avoids the need to buy a kit, and you can then make as many as you like knowing you have created them from start to finish yourself.

You can either use these to put a gift bottle in for friends & family, or they are very useful to keep in your car or shopping bag, to stop bottles banging together, keeping them safe.

When making your pattern, it is worthwhile reading through all the instructions before you begin.

Requirements:

32.5 inches x 6.5 inches of:

Main cotton fabric
Lining cotton Fabric
Fusible batting

Also:

Paper for drawing the pattern (you can tape pieces together if not long enough).
Pencil (or marker pen)
Quilters Ruler (& Rotary Cutter) – although I used scissors to cut this out.
Snippers
Matching cotton thread for the sewing machine
Hand sewing needle
¼ inch foot (or walking foot)
Pins
Fabric scissors
Paper Scissors
Point Turner
A circular placemat or template, for drawing a curve

Instructions

On your piece of paper 32.5 inches x 6.5 inches, draw a ¼ inch seam line all the way around the inside of the oblong.

(NB: In the following instructions, the first and last marker you draw, start or end at this ¼ inch line rather than the edge of the paper)

(8.5 inch mark) – From one short end, put a dot 8.5 inches from the seamline (which is 8.75 inches from the edge of the paper) and put a short line to mark where this point is.
(3.5 inch mark) – From this new short mark at 8.5 inches, measure and put a dot at 3.5 inches further on and again draw a short line at this point.
(8.5 inch mark) – From this new line, draw a further short line 8.5 inches away.

We will now repeat to get the same at the other end, but continuing from this half way point………

(3.5 inch mark) – From the last line drawn, draw a further short line 3.5 inches away
(8.5 inch mark) – From this line draw a further short line 8.5 inches away

You should now be at the other end, with just the 1/4 inch seam line after this new line.

All these additional lines are to enable you to draw the handle and curve in the middle which we will now do.

From your first 3.5 inch mark line, measure down the width and put a small circle mark at 2 inches from both sides. This will split the 6 inches within the seamline to 2 inches either side of what will create a 2 inch handle.

However, as we need to add a seam allowance onto the handle. From this circle mark, draw another circle ¼ inch away from it towards the side, to create a seam allowance (do this for both dots).

I found a circular mat, and used this to create a curved line going from the ¼ inch seamline circle mark, to the 8.5 inch short line at the side. Draw a curve from all four dots.

In the middle, now draw a straight line from each ¼ inch seam line dot to the other along the length for the handle.

The final bit, is to cut out the curved sides on the curved line you have drawn then along the straight line of the handle, and your pattern is ready to go.

Well done for getting to this point, as I am hoping the instructions have been clear enough for you to make the pattern. Please get in touch, if you need any further clarification.

Iron your fusible batting onto your lining fabric, If you have one, it is preferable to use a piece of parchment paper or a silicon sheet to avoid getting anything stuck to your iron.

Lay your fabric right sides together, pin and cut your pattern out.

Keeping your fabrics right sides together, pin along the handle and along the curves but stopping at that point (see image). Stitch the handle sides using a ¼ inch foot and back stitch at the start and end HOWEVER, start and end your sewing at ¼ inch to leave the edges open.

Clip the curves with small ‘Vs’ to enable to fabric to lie flatter when you turn the bag to the right side.

Turn your fabrics wrong sides together by pulling one end through the tunnel you have created when sewing your handle sides.

Iron the handle so it is nice and flat.

As you won’t need to bind the sides of these handles, in order to keep them straight and flat, edge stitch at 1/8^th inch down both sides HOWEVER, start and end at ¼ in, so that the sides of the bag are still left open.

Fold the handle in on itself, so that it doesn’t get caught when you sew the sides together.

Lift one of the lining sides up and down to the other side (right sides together).

Matching the side seams, pin all the way round the lining, (leaving 4 inches of one side of the lining open), for when you need to turn the completed bag to the right side.

Continue pinning in the same way, by joining the 2 outside fabrics, right sides together, pinning all the way round.

Starting after the opening you have made, sew all the way round the bag using a ¼ inch seam, back stitching at the start and end of the opening.

The next step is to box the corners as follows:

Open and flatten the corners to a point with the seam running through the centre as in the image. When you place your quilters ruler across the corner, you want the measurement where it touches both sides, to be 1.5 inches. Draw a line across and this will be your stitching line. When sewn, you can cut the excess fabric off, leaving just a ¼ inch seam. Repeat this step for the other three corners.

Turn your fabric through the hole so that you can see the right side of the lining fabric and either machine or hand sew the opening closed. As this bag is made with no raw edges, I turned the opening in ¼ inch and hand sewed it using a small ladder stitch.

Some bottle holder projects have instructions for adding a circular base, which can be quite fiddly, I think these squared off edges still work with a round bottle, just the same as the card ones you buy in gift shops.

Here is the finished bag.