A while back, I did a post called Secrets of the No-Sew Rag Rug. The main difficulty with those rugs is braiding them in such a way that they remain FLAT. But, then I thought, what if I LET it be UN-FLAT?

It made a cutie bag!

1. I cut about 1.5 yards of remnant fleece I had sitting around into two inch strips. But, any material that won’t fray will work just fine. In my rug post, I used t-shirts. (Fleece stretches one way but not the other. The way I cut my strips, they stretched in width, but not length. This direction it made a very sturdy bag. Cut the other direction might make a stretchy bag?)

2. Tie a loose knot in the middle.

3. Take the right hand piece and go UNDER, OVER, UNDER.

4. Now that there is a new piece on the right, do it again. UNDER, OVER, UNDER.

5. Continue until you have a (snug but not tight) braid the length you want the base of your bag.

6. Now turn the piece around so the bottom is the top. Turn your strips to the right. You are going to do the same thing UNDER, OVER, UNDER, but now you will TUCK the strip in it’s corresponding color. Try to keep the braid flat, but don’t stress to much about it.

7. Continue all the way down the braid and repeat step six until you have the base you want.

***Now some where in here, you will run out of a strip and need to add more. Cut a tiny hole in the end of the shorty and one in the end of the newbie. Put newbie through shorty, then newbie through himself. Nonsense right? Here’s a pic:

8. Okay, once you have a semi-flat-ish base, keep going around but stop making any attempt to keep it flat. Up and down the braid. Round and round. (Unlike the rug, we won’t be adding strips.)

9. Once working ‘inside the bowl’ gets annoying, flip the bowl inside out so you’re working around the outside. UNDER, OVER, UNDER and TUCK just like before. (If you want the shape I have, braid the middle section a little tighter then the lower and upper sections.)

9. Once you get to the depth you want, it’s time to make the handles. Now, the only reason my bag has black handles is that I ran out of red. But if you want to do that on purpose, just braid to one corner, snip the reds, and join on blacks via the ‘newbie-shorty’ method illustrated above.

10. To make the handles, just stop TUCKING for about five “UNDER, OVER, UNDER’s” then start tucking again. Work around to the other side and stop and restart tucking in the same spots.

11. To end, weave the strips into the bag through it’s own color.

12. Turn right side out. Snip stray pieces. Poke any knots to the inside.

13. If that didn’t make a whole heap of sense, go check out the other post Secrets of the No Sew Rag Rug to see if THAT makes more sense. Just remember to NOT add the extra strips that you need for a rug. Bags don’t need ’em.

WHEW!!!!

Ivory