Knitting Bag Tutorial

I worked in law enforcement for thirteen years and often had to find ways to relieve my stress.  For me, knitting did that perfectly.  I honestly used to tell people that I knit so I wouldn't kill people.  I thought this phrase up myself and I seriously thought I had invented it.  However, one day while surfing Pinterest, I saw a bag that had this exact saying on it.  I was excited and floored all at the same time.  The bag was a cotton-twill bag with silk screen lettering in various colors.  I absolutely loved it but justify the $30.00 price tag (plus shipping, of course).

If you read my previous post you know that my family and I are moving to Idaho in a couple of weeks.  If you haven't moved in a while, it is surprisingly expensive.  I have only ever moved across town so this little adventure of ours is far more expensive than I ever thought it could be, hence the lack of funds for the bag that I have decided should be mine.

I started packing my office/craft room and realized I had one of those cotton-twill bags that I had seen on Pinterest.  I looked through the rest of my stuff and found some pretty fabric paint, paint brushes and a sponge.  I went to a nearby craft store and bought some letter stencils that were on clearance for $2.97!  So exciting!!!

The fabric paint calls for your fabric to be pre-washed so I did that.  Let me just tell you, I have never washed a bag in this fabric before.  A little hint....it shrinks...A LOT!  I expected to find the bag I had put in the dryer but instead I found a balled up, shriveled cotton-twill bag wanna-be.  And it wasn't even dry even though it had been sitting in there all night.

I pulled it out and ironed it while it was still damp.  I'm not sure if that's a good idea but it turned out okay.  I ended up with a 10.5" x 11.5" working surface for my lettering.

The hardest part of this, for me, was trying to figure out where to put the lettering.  I used a disappearing ink pen that I used during my "I wanna sew my own clothes" days.  It worked perfectly.  I used a little math (thank you Mr. Wells) to figure out where my borders should be to make the lettering centered.


I originally wanted my bag to say "I knit so I don't kill people" but after trying to space it out I realized my bag wasn't big enough for all of that.  Instead I eliminated the word "people" and just made it say "I knit so I don't kill".


I had already marked the letters with my ink pen and saw that they weren't exactly centered.  I was going to change it but then decided I actually liked the way it looked, so I left it.  I also decided to make the word "knit" and all of it's letters throughout the bag the same color.  The rest of the letters were done in a different, but comparable color.

I have never stenciled before so I really wasn't sure what I was doing.  The first couple of letters I did had fuzzy edges but at least they were recognizable as letters.  Once I put a hard surface between the layers of the bag, I got very crisp, professional looking letters.  I initially outlined each letter with a paint brush but then went over the stencil with a sponge to layer the color some more.


It's certainly not perfect but I am pretty pleased with it, and myself.  I just made myself a dedicated knitting bag for $3.00 and a little time.  And the fabric paint has glitter in it, so it's blingy too.  Not bad for $3.00!

I might add some more embellishment after it dries, but I haven't decided yet.

I really hope you'll try it.  I would love to see your finished bag!

Send me a message and i will send you a PDF copy of the tutorial if you want one.