I've been making little pouches for the items we find in geocaches, like travel bugs and geocoins and whatnot. Of course you could use these little bags for any old thing you wanted, including hiding prizes, hoarding treasure, or delivering cake. Of course, the cake thing might not work out so well, what with fabric being permeable by frosting. But you could try.

I made a few with buttons:



I really wanted to do a drawstring one though. Today I did manage a drawstring one with help from Nico at It's Your Life. I didn't exactly follow her directions but the pictures helped me finally figure out what the heck I was supposed to do with that lousy drawstring channel.

Here's my drawstring pouch:

It's just what I wanted. The Frog Log travel bug is going in it and going to Nevada, although I'm not sure the other travel bug I sent out there ever made it. Mental note: Call Kristen.

Here are *my* directions, unhelpfully unillustrated in ten steps each:

Button:
1. Cut two rectangles about as wide and more than twice as high as you want your bag to finish.
2. Sew up the side seams on each rectangle, so you end up with two little pockets.
3. Turn one right side out and tuck it down inside the other one, so the right sides are together.
4. Sew around the top where the raw edges are, leaving an inch to turn.
5. Turn it all right side out and stuff the lining down inside the bag.
6. Fold it down once, and topstitch around the top edge, enclosing the part where you left it open to turn.
7. Put a button on the inside of the back and a buttonhole on the front -- BANG you're done.
8. Smile warmly.
9. Pat yourself on the back.
10. Call your mother and congratulate her for raising such a fine child.

Drawstring:
1. Cut two rectangles just as wide and twice as high as you want your bag to finish.
2. Sew up the side seams on each rectangle, so you end up with two little pockets.
3. Turn one right side out and tuck it down inside the other one, so the right sides are together.
4. Cut another rectangle, about 3 inches wide and long enough to go ALMOST all the way around the top of your bag.
5. Hem the short ends of it a little big.
6. Fold it over, wrong sides together, and tuck it down between the two layers of bag that you already have.
7. Sew through all four layers, leaving one inch to turn.
8. Turn it all right side out and stuff the lining down inside the bag.
9. Topstitch around under the drawstring channel, capturing the little edges where you left it open to turn.
10. Stick a safety pin on one end of a ribbon and pull it through -- BANG. Done.