Save the Planet! DIY Canvas Bag

After a very beautiful Tim Minchin song jolted me back into reality about our worlds state of pollution, I decided to stop using plastic bags, and instead make a canvas bag! My canvas bag looked a little bland after it was all sewn together, so I decided to paint Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness from Skyrim on it because some people think it's crazy that scientist have proven that the earths temperature is increasing at an alarming rate.

Anyways this bag took about a half an hour to sew, and 3 hours to paint, and cost me about $3 dollars.

- 1/2 yard of canvas

- Sewing thread

- Pins

Optional

- Gesso

- Acrylic paints

- Paint brushes

To began I measured out a 20" by 38" piece of canvas, marked it with chalk, and then cut it out.. To make the hem I folded the fabric on the long horizontal side over once by a half and inch than again, so that I could not see the fraying edge.

I folded the fabric so the fabric that was not pinned to hem was touching, and I pinned the two side hems together.

I sewed the hems together keeping my presser foot edge on the inner hems edge so that my line was consistent and straight.

Next I folded the top unhemmed fabric down an inch, then folded it again, so I had a 1" hem. I sewed the hem together using the same method.

This is the part of the tutorial where I would recommend using an industrial sewing machine. However I do not own one so I ended up breaking a couple needles during this process.

I cut out 2 2" by 20" strips of canvas folded them over, and sewed the folded edges together. I turned the canvas tube inside out, then tucked the fraying ends of the tube inside it, and sewed it (pic 4). Then I pinned the tube down so it was flat and sewed it together. I'm not one hundred 100% sure what this process is called but pic 7 shows what it achieves.

I measured the canvas bag around and pinned the edges of the straps equal lengths away on the bags hem line. I sewed the straps on, then turned the bag inside out to see how it looked.

This step is totally optional, but I wanted to give my bag a little flare. I began by gessoing a blob onto my bag. I soften the edges of my gessoed blob with some water, so it faded into the canvas.

Normally I would draw a picture on my bag, but I couldn't be bothered today, so I traced an image of sheogorath onto my bag by taping the image down, and slipping some graphite paper under it. This picture is not my own all rights go to Hussii you can check them out here.

It's kind of hard to explain how to paint, but I always start with the face. I paint the light colors first than blend them slowly into the darker colors. I never paint with pure black off right off the bat because it's easy to not give your painting enough depth.

The hair was achieved by painting by layers. First I painted a medium gray color, than I went in with the highlights and shadow of the hair. Finally I used a flat brush to paint in pure whit the strands of hair.

I sealed the painting with 3 coats of mod podge spray

A beautiful bag to save the planet!