Fold-up Felt Bag

Making a bag or shape doesn’t always need to involve sewing or other major tools. This simple fold up bag is made by an ‘origami’ method of folding and threading tabs through holes to make a container. This fold-up bag is my unique design and intended it to be made of heavy felt. For fun I call this “Square Peg in a Round Hole”. It’s super simple with my free pattern (downloadable).

The simplicity of this bag is great as it doesn't need fancy supplies:

1. Heavy weight Felt/material (amount depends on size chosen) Any heavy weight fabric or leather can also work, ideally something that will keep its shape and not fray. (You could also consider vinyl, tarp material, painted canvas, the list goes on...)
2. Cutting tools like scissors or xacto/mat knife/rotary cutter (if using a matt knife or rotary cutter you will want to protect the table surface with a cutting mat or cardboard)
3. Straight edge to cut the straight lines against
4. Printer to produce pattern
5. Magic marker to trace pattern onto material.

To download the pattern (PDF) click here

You may want to print it at a size according to the amount of felt you have or size of bag to make. Since the pattern is symmetrical you may just reuse sections and not have to print it that large.

To trace the pattern onto the material you can cut it out and trace around the shape with a marker or pen. If you trace it onto the back side then any lines will not be that visible later. I use the straight edge to cut the straight lines first and then use the scissors/mat knife to cut round edges. Also cut the curved slots in the tabs.

You have now finished the hardest part. Amazing isn't it?! Now you just need to fold it up. Bring the 2 rounded tabs to overlap each other and then bring up the square tab and thread it through the 'rounded' slots. Since the slots are curved it will look like a round hole. Pull it up and you have finished the first half. Repeat on the other side... Ta-da! Done!

It stands quite nicely and can be used for a multitude of things. Tools, towels, bathroom stuff, CD's, as a gift bag, etc. The nice thing is that it can be flattened for easy storage as well. I rather like the simple geometric shapes as well. Once you see how easy it is make one, you may want to size it up or down and make more! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed designing it!