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Custom DIY drawstring bags

The life of a husband, dad, blogger and now football coach. If my life wasn’t busy enough I decided to add the title coach to my portfolio and be the head honcho of my son’s youth football team. Have you ever heard the saying “it’s like trying to herd cats.” Well That’s almost what it’s like to coach six, seven and eight year olds in football. My blogging has taken a major hit during the initial start of football season. The amount of Volunteer time required to coach football is tiring but fun.

So I am trying to combine a little of both world’s. I have combined my Cricut design skills along with my coaching skills. The result is a custom DIY drawstring bag. For those maybe interested we are at two wins and zero losses so far. It looks like I might be a better coach than a blogger or I was blessed with great athletes on my team. I haven’t quite figured that part out yet. Maybe it is a little of both.

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Drawstring backpacks

My version of a DIY drawstring bag isn’t actually making the bag but decorating it with heat transfer vinyl. The tool’s needed to complete this project are:

Heat Transfer vinyl, ie siser easy weed, Stahl’s HTV and Cricut HTV. There are many varieties out there. Choose what works best for you. I myself use siser easy weed. It has worked best for me in my projects.

Cricut, any machine that can cut vinyl will work. Use what you have and don’t go in to debt for it. The Cricut machine I have is the Explore One. It does work well for me and my projects. I will upgrade to the maker eventually. I have mainly used our Cricut for paper, vinyl and heat transfer vinyl cutting. As a Cricut owner I have constantly been searching for new ways and new things to create with our Cricut.  This project came to me after I knew that my blog has been suffering for lack of attention. So I decided to branch out in my projects and items I use to cut with my machine.

Design or lettering. You of course need to have a design to put on your drawstring bag. I do my designing in CorelDraw. It is easy to use for the basic designs but it can also do so much more. It has so much involved in it that the above average designer will like it. I personally like and use Corel Draw. Its what I use at work and home. So I am most familiar with it. Use what you know and have on hand.

There are several program available.  The one  considered by many top be the holy grail is Photo shop.   I don’t have that kind of money to justify the purchase but if you do go for it.  I have heard nothing but good things about Photoshop and its functions.  There are many other programs out there also like Illustrator and paint shop pro. You can also find some free programs out there like Gravit Designer, Vectr, SVG-Edit and Inkscape.

Heat press or Iron. I was able to find a generic heat press off of Ebay. It has served me well for thousands of projects. An Iron can also be used to press your designs. I have never done it myself but many swear that it is easy to do.

Pre project warning

There are many types of drawstring bags out there. They are also fairly inexpensive. The bag I found was purchased at Dollar Tree. So depending on which bag you decide to go with, you have to be careful when transferring your design. I will talk more about this in detail later.

Design Time

I wanted to do a design on the DIY drawstring bag for my son that would light up his day and make him say WOW. This is not an easy task for my young son. I have to compete with all the distractions that are out there competing for his time. Our first victory is getting him away from the electronics. Points to mom and dad to keeping him active.

My thoughts were to design the bag to tie it to his football team. In our small town our team is tied to the local high school by name and mascot. So he is a Lobo. Placing the Lobo mascot on the bag felt like the right way to go. It was going to turn out sharp but something seemed to be missing. Then it dawned on me to put his last name on it also. You can’t get more personalized than that, or could I? The question was asked what do most football players like to remember about their football days and games? It hit me like a load of bricks. He needs his jersey number on the bag also. With a few more keystrokes and tweaking of the design the designing was done.

 

Cutting for the drawstring bag

Now that we have our design set. It is time to send it to be cut. Make sure you position your design so you don’t waste vinyl that could be used for other projects. Also dont forget to cut your design in reverse so it will appear right way on your drawstring bag. Like I said before my preference is the Cricut and with that your cutting time can be fairly quick.

Depending on the difficulty of your design it could also take a lot longer to cut.. Designs that include standard fonts are always quicker to cut. Cursive fonts take a lot longer to cut and add more time to your weeding process. Weeding is the term used in removing the excess vinyl material from your design. The design pictured is a little more complex so it did take a little longer to cut and to weed. As you can see by the picture I grouped the designs together to save space. The DIY drawstring bag is almost done.

Pressing your DIY drawstring bag

The warning about pressing certain material types come in to play here. Some materials may melt under heat so you have to be careful. My 1st attempt was at 315 degrees. It nearly melted the bag. My additional attempts were at 300 degrees. It worked out great for me. The following is from https://www.proworldinc.com/transfer-vinyl-application-instructions#sisereasyweedhome
Siser EasyWeed Vinyl Using A Home Iron
Application Instructions
100% cotton, Poly/cotton blends, 100% polyester
Set iron dial between Cotton and Linen
Cover design with Kraft paper or non-stick cover sheet
Place on flat, hard surface (ironing board not recommended)
Press iron with medium/firm pressure (do not slide iron)
Press each section of design for 10-15 seconds
If areas of design lift after application, replace cover sheet and re-press for 5-10 seconds
Peel carrier hot or cold
Wait 24 hours before first wash.

The next instructions come from https://www.proworldinc.com/transfer-vinyl-application-instructions#sisereasyvinyl
Siser EasyWeed Vinyl Using A Heat Press
Application Instructions
100% cotton, Poly/cotton blends, 100% polyester, Leather.
Cut in reverse
Weed excess material
Preheat garment for 2-3 seconds
Apply design at 305°F/150°C
Use medium pressure for 10-15 seconds
Peel carrier hot or cold
Wait 24 hours before first wash.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my DIY drawstring bag. For those of you wondering I did get that WOW moment when he saw his bag for the 1st time