Sports Ball Cinch Bag – Sewing Projects for Kids Series

There are a couple of kids in the house that play sports.  I cannot describe the dirty shoes, or the stinky shoes! and the balls and other goodies we get to haul around.  There is a bunch.

The awesome thing about a cinch bag is they can hold more than they look like they should- and they are easy to stuff full or dump.  The option of wearing it on your back and having hands free is a bonus too.

For the kids series we took the simple cinch bag and put mesh on the front!  This is soft screen material you can pick up at your local hard ware store.  The mesh lets the items inside air out.  It’s great for letting those stinky things not over power you when you get them out of the bag!

Even though we made this for sports, this would be great for hauling things to the beach (sand can come right out!) or whatever kind of activity you have.  You can see everything inside.

Materials Needed:

mesh screening material  10″ X 15 1/2″ (soft plastic window screen would work fine for this project)

heavier weight fabric:

front- top and bottom of bag 2– 3 1/2″ X 15 1/2″

back of bag- 15 1/2″ X 15 1/2″

corner triangle 2– 3″ X 3″

ribbon 2– 2″ wide X 15 1/2″

2– 2″ X 1″ – little loops at the bottom of the bag

rope – 2– 50″ ties  We used three skinny ropes and braided them together before using

Sports Ball Cinch Bag Tutorial- Sewing Projects for Kids:

1)  Lay the 3 1/2″ strip on top of the mesh and sew it to 10″ side of the mesh.  Repeat with the other strip- sew to the opposite side of the mesh

2)  Mark with a pencil corner to corner on the wrong side of the fabric

3)  Lay on the corner of the bag and stitch on the drawn line

4)  Fold the corner back and iron (we didn’t cut the underneath fabric, just to give the corner and additional strength)

5)  Fold the ribbon pieces in half and pin in the corner

6)  Fold the top edge over to the right side of the fabric  1/2″ and iron

7)  Lay the ribbon on top of the fold – the ribbon will cover it. Pin in place

8)  Stitch the top edge of the ribbon

9)  Stitch the bottom edge of the ribbon– you will be leaving the ends open, it’s the channel for the rope ties

10)  Tie one end of the rope to the bottom loop.  Take the other end and lace through the ribbon channel– ALL the way around the top.  You will be going in and out of the same side of the bag- this creates the cinch part.

11)  Repeat with the rope tie on the other side of the bag.

For the other projects in the kids sewing series go here— there are 6 of them!

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