If you have any contact with your local shelters or rescues, you must know that kitten season is upon us. One of the big challenges of having so many litters coming through is stopping the sharing of illness before symptoms show up. One of the ways to do this is to have dedicated bedding, bowls, boxes and toys for each litter. With enclosures, the first three are relatively simple. Keeping the same toys with the same litter is a bit more challenging. Another rescue suggested toy bags so that each litter’s toys can be kept with them. The one my son and I volunteer with on the weekends reached out to their volunteer community for help in possibly making these bags.
Last weekend I worked up two dozen bags in addition to the six I made the week before. The pattern and instructions below were written up as a quick method of creating these for shelters, rescues and their fosters. The information is free to share and reproduce for non-profit purposes only. For ease of printing, a link to a PDF file is included at the bottom of this post. Happy Stitching.
Supplies & Notions:
- Fat Quarter in fabric of choice
- Twine for drawstrings
- Large eyed blunt needle (Eye should be large enough to accommodate the drawstring material.)
- Thread (coordinating or contrasting)
- Sharps if sewing by hand
Directions:
- One fat quarter will make two Kitten Toy bags approximately 8” x 10.5”.
- Do not prewash the fat quarter. Iron as needed.
- Cut in half on the 18” side (see Figure A). This will result in a 9” x 22” piece (see Figure B).
- Using as small a hem as you are comfortable sewing, one long side and at least one inch down each short side from the hemmed long side noted by blue lines on Figure C. I used a rolled hem foot on my machine and simply hemmed the three sides.
- Note: While hemming is not strictly necessary, considering that these are expected to be laundered in a sanitizing manner, I recommend it. This is to increase durability and will also reduce the strings that result from washing.
- Fold over the long side a half inch and sew in place the length of it. This will create the casing for the drawstring.
- Fold in half with right sides together. Sew along raw edge of long side and up the short side stopping at the very beginning of the casing. See Figure D.
- Turn right side out. Cut a length of twine 28” long. Knot one end. Thread the large eyed needle with the other end and thread it through the entire casing. Remove the needle from the twine and knot that end.
Additional information:
- The pattern can be altered if the fat quarter is not the typical 18×22.
- A half yard will net 4 toy bags.
- Smaller cuts can be utilized for smaller bags.
- Yarn, ribbon or shoes laces can be substituted for twine.
© 2019 AblyAnnie (Pam Willars) All Rights Reserved
This pattern may only be reproduced for non-profit purposes. You may use it to create toy bags for your own use or for donation purposes only. Neither the pattern itself nor the resulting products may be sold.
Link to Free Pattern Fat Quarter Kitten Toy Bags
AblyAnnie 