Ventbag

You can find instructions on how to make Morsbags on their website

They are available as a word document, a pdf document or a how to animation, click on the ‘Make One’ tab. There is lots of helpful information available on the morsbags forum from people who have made lots of them already.

Hints and Tips I have found on the site and from making the bags myself.

Size – 18” x 20” is the suggested size for bags but you can make them smaller, some make much smaller ones for children to use. If you make them too much bigger you won’t be able to carry them when filled unless you are a body-builder or they will drag on the ground unless you are tall.

Handles – The standard handle length is 18″ x 4″ You can make longer handles so they can be used as shoulder bags, a lot of people do prefer them, I make both, it usually depends on how much fabric I have available. I place my handles in about 5” from the edges of the bags. Some baggers use a postcard as a guide.

Attaching the Handles – On the original instructions it says to stitch a box with a cross in it to make sure the handles are securely attached. My machine does not like doing it and makes horrible blobs of stitching on each corner so I stitch round the entire top of the bag 3 times to keep the handles in place, seems to work well, I have carried a lot of heavy shopping in mine and the handles are still attached.

Hems and Turnings – my first ironed hem at the top of the bag is usually about 1/2” the second one is about one and a half inches or 3cms, I have cut bits of stiff cardboard to use as a guide as I am not too good at judging distances.

Thread – Baggers have found that rather than keep changing the thread to match the colour of the fabric you are using and having to keep threading and winding bobbins using a grey thread works well with a lot of fabrics. It does, I have also found that light sage green blends in quite well too. Some people have ‘trademark’ thread they use such as lime green, purple, bright yellow that they use for everything, once again it is up to you! If you are using the 1000m reels of thread and you have any spare bobbins, fill several before you start and you won’t have to re-thread your machine as often.

Some of my bags I sew right sides together first and then turn in the right way and topstitch depending on if I have remembered to put wrong sides together or not, for the first line of stitching. Do what works best for you.The bags need to be strong but they do not need to be perfect, if you make mistakes don’t worry.

All bags should have a Morsbag.com label, this is so people who have been given a bag can make their own or pass the details on. I have bought a supply of labels for us to use or you can get transfer paper and make iron on labels with the logo that you can download from the site. If you need labels please contact me.

On the Morsbag website people making these bags have set up ‘Pods’ all over the UK and in some other countries so each area can post a tally of how many bags have been made and given away. We are registered as Ventnor Bags, if you are making bags on your own, please let me know how many you have made so I can add them to our tally.

We need a free hall or large room to hold afternoon and evening group bag making sessions in, if you know of anywhere please get in touch.