Tired of searching up and down for a beautiful free bag sewing pattern for your electronic gadgets? You have come to the right place. We have a tablet-size bag sewing pattern that is absolutely free for you. The size of this tablet carrier bag is suitable for keeping your iPad, Surface, Fire, Kindle, Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus, and other handheld electronic devices of similar size. They are good for books, too, or a quick grocery store trip. Just dump your keys and phone in, and off you go!
This post may contain affiliate links, and we may earn a commission on purchases made through them at no extra cost to you.
Thank you!
This tablet bag sewing tutorial comes in 2 versions, with or without a zipper. I have developed the tutorial for both bags to suit your interests. “With Zipper” will be for the intermediate level, and “Without Zipper” will be easier and quicker to sew.
Sewing Material & Supplies
∙ Fabrics
I ordered 3 yards of fabrics from Modern Yardage early this year, Bumbaloo Collection by Marcia Copeland. Unlike the usual cut-to-yard fabric we bought off the shelf, Modern Yardage fabrics are print-to-order. They only print after you have placed the order via their website to save storage space and reduce the waste of outdated prints.
This quilting weight fabric comes in 58″ wide, but they are only printing the main pattern on 44″. The additional spaces at the side are printed with other interesting things, like washing instructions, free patterns, etc. You could use this section for sewing something fun and creative. Modern Yardage uses environmentally-friendly, water-based textile pigments that are not harsh to humans and the Earth.
Out of the Bumbaloo Collection, I cut out the following pieces from the prints to sew one tablet bag:
- Burst in Red Orange, 13″ x 19″
- Shaky Stripes in Orange Yellow, 19″ x 20″
- Burst Attack in Seafoam, 9″ x 9″
∙ Other Sewing Supplies
A flexible stabilizer / Interfacing with medium stiffness is added to the wrong side of the fabric to give the bag a better structure. The material we use is a woven cotton type of stabilizer, and the size is approx: 18″ x 18″. You may use padded interfacing for shock protection, which is meant to protect the electronic gadget.
For the bag’ shoulder straps, we use a 1-inch cotton webbing strap. The length needed is about 82 inches. We also use some tapes, ribbons, or laces for embellishment, you just need a short length of about 2 1/2 inches.
Since we have 2 options in this tablet bag sewing pattern, zipper closure and button closure, hence choose which options you want to sew, then prepare the supplies according to your chosen option. For a zipper table bag, prepare a 12″ zipper. I sewed mine with a metal zipper but you can use nylon or plastic zipper; they all work wonderfully. However, if you opt for a button closure, all you need are a nice button and a short length, 4 to 5 inches, of leather or cotton cord.
Sewing Tools
We used a sewing machine to sew this shoulder tablet bag. Prepare a normal presser foot if you are sewing for a button closure option. A zipper presser foot is needed if you opt for a zipper closure. Besides the sewing machine, you will need the sewing essentials like pins, needles, some matching threads, water erasable fabric markers or seamstress chalk, scissors, iron, etc.
We like to cut the fabric with a quilter’s rotary cutter; thus, a quilter’s ruler and cutting mat are needed too.
What’s Next:
- Make sure to tag us, @craftpassion, when you share your completed tablet bag photo on Facebook or Instagram. We’d love to see what you’ve made!
- Not making it now? Save it to Pinterest for your future sewing projects list.
- Share this pattern with your sewing community for a fun sew-along activity
- Be sure to explore more free sewing patterns, particularly for making bags and purses.
Happy sewing!
TABLET CARRIER BAG SEWING PATTERN
The size of this tablet bag is suitable for keeping your iPad, Kindle, Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus, and other handheld electronic devices of similar size. They are good for books, too, or a quick grocery store trip. Just dump your keys and phone in, and off you go!
This tablet bag sewing pattern comes in 2 versions, with or without a zipper. I have developed the how-to-sew tutorial for both bags to suit your interests.
Enjoy sewing them!
Download and print the SEWING BAG PATTERN for drawing the fabric separately.
Materials
- Fabrics, 3 colors (I used Modern Yardage printed fabrics, Bumbaloo Collection by Marcia Copeland):
- Burst in Red Orange, 13″ x 19″
- Shaky Stripes in Orange Yellow, 19″ x 20″
- Burst Attack in Seafoam, 9″ x 9″
- Fusible Stabilizer / Interfacing, woven cotton, medium stiffness, approx: 18″ x 18″
- Cotton webbing straps, 1″ (W) x 82″ (L)
- Embellished Tape or ribbon or lace, short length (about 2 1/2″)
With Zipper
- Zipper, 12″
Without Zipper
- Leather or cotton cord, 4 to 5″
- Button
Tools
- Sewing machine, with normal and zipper presser feet
- Sewing needle, pins, matching threads
- Ruler
- Rotary cutter (you can use scissors too)
- Erasable fabric marker
- Scissors
- Warm iron
Instructions
- Gather all the materials and tools needed as listed above.
Download the pattern page to get the dimension of the cut-out pieces.
Pre-wash your fabrics, get the grain lines straight and iron them flat and smooth.
Note: Pre-wash your fabrics are essential to avoid any shrinkage in the future when you wash them. It is also for you to test out how color-fast your fabric is. The Modern Yardage fabrics I used are already pre-wash, so I don’t really have to wash them; however, I still wash them to test out the color fastness. - Draw out the bag pattern pieces directly on the wrong side of the fabrics and fusible stabilizer/interfacing.
- Set the iron to the cotton setting without steam. Align the stabilizer to the main fabric, with the shiny adhesive side facing down and on the wrong side of the fabric. The stabilizer is 1″ smaller than the fabric; hence, it is 1/2″ away from the fabric edge.
Press warm iron onto the stabilizer to fuse it to the fabric. Make sure it bonds nicely without any bubble. Fuse the pocket stabilizer to the lining of the pocket too. The lining is 2″ longer and 1″ wider; thus, the interfacing is 1″ from the top edges and 1/2″ from the side edges of the lining. - a.) Set the stitch length to the longest length, and sew 1/8″ above and below the top and bottom seam lines of the pocket main piece.
b.) Align both pocket main piece and lining piece with right-side facing each other, all 4 sides together and pin. Pin on the 2 1/2″ markings and let the extra length of fabric of the main piece gather at the center. Pull threads to make gathers at the center. Sew on the top and bottom seam lines of the pocket. Note: lining piece is larger than the main piece.
c.) Turn the pocket right-side out, press seam flat with seam allowance at the gather-side. Topstitch near the edges and seam lines.
d.) Align the pocket on the bag main piece. Pin. Set aside. - a.) Zig-zag stitch the ends to join the cotton webbing straps together to form a ring. Note: you may lightly burn the raw edges of the cotton webbing straps to stop them from fraying excessively.
b.) Cover the ugly seam with fabric tape, ribbon, or lace. Sew around.
c.) Place the strap onto the main piece of the bag with a pocket already pinned in place.
d.) Sew the strap to the bag 1″ below the top seam lines.
With Zipper (Challenging Option)
- a.) Change the sewing machine foot to a zipper presser foot. Align the zipper to the top seam lines of the bag, with both zipper and fabric facing each other on the right side. Align the lining piece with the right-side facing in. Pin and sew. Glide the zipper pull when necessary to avoid it from blocking the sewing path.
b.) Turn to the right side, press seam flat, and topstitch near the seam-line.
c.) Pin the other side of the bag to the zipper, followed by pinning the lining piece to them.
d.) Turn right-side out, press seam flat, and topstitch near the seam-line. Due to the stiffness of the stabilizer, you might not be able to perform the top-stitch in 1-go. Stitch as far as you can, then sew from the other end. - a.) Turn the bag to the inside again and lay it flat as shown in the picture, the main piece is next to the lining piece. Mark an opening at the side seam of about 5″ on the lining. Pin.
b.) Align the piece properly so that they join up nicely and neatly. Sew both side seams except the 5″ opening at one of the sides of the lining. Note that the zipper is on the lining side.
c.) Flatten the base of the bag, a triangle as shown in the picture will form at the corner of the side seam. Flatten the lining’s base to form an exact triangle.
d.) Pin both triangles together and sew. Repeat the same to the other base’s corner. - a.) The bag looks crumbled up after sewing both corners.
b.) Bring the straps out from the opening. Slowly turn everything right-side out. It may be difficult if your stabilizer is too stiff and hard, rip off some stitch to make the opening bigger if needed.
c.) Sew to close the opening at the lining.
d.) Turn the bag and iron it if needed. - Embellish the bag with a charm or other decorative items like leather badge or button.
Without Zipper (Easier Option)
- a.) Position the bag piece on top of lining piece with right-side facing each other after you have sewed the strap on. Pin.
b.) Place a leather or cotton cord loop at the center of the top seam, sandwich in between both bag and lining pieces. Pin and sew the top seams. Sew a few more stitches (back and forth) on the place where the loop is placed.
c.) Flip the bag and lining pieces open, one at each side. Sew the side seam by leaving a 5″ opening at one of the lining’s side seams.
d.) Flatten the base of the bag to form a triangle at the corner of the side seam. Flatten the lining’s base to form an exact triangle. Pin both triangles together and sew. Repeat the same to the other base’s corner. - Bring the straps out from the opening, slowly turn the bag right-side out. Topstitch near the edge. Iron the bag flat and smooth if needed. Sew a button to the bag to catch the loop.
Here is the easy version of a tablet carrier bag without the zipper. The owl button catches the loop so that the bag is partially shut to prevent the tablet from falling out.
I added a tree just above the pocket to match the owl button.
Hope to see you sewing soon!
Notes
Seam Allowance: 1/2″ on fabrics only.
You may substitute the straps with fabric, cut 2 1/2″ wide 83″ long, join the strips to make up to an 82″ ring. Cut 1″ wide 82″ long of stabilizer. Both fabric and stabilizer can be in multiple lengths as long as they join up to make an 82″ ring. Iron stabilizer to the wrong side of the fabric strap along 1/2″ from the raw edge. Fold the fabric in, hide raw edge along the edge of the strap, topstitch on both edges of the strap.
Get the full article at https://www.craftpassion.com/tablet-carrier-bag/
Naomi
Wednesday 1st of February 2017
Thank you so much for this terrific pattern! I used it to make a tote for my son's mini computer in Avengers fabric. I easily adjusted it to make the side pockets larger and to remove the gathering at his request. He loves it!!
Linda @ Sewing Shop
Monday 7th of March 2016
This looks like a really handy, and cute, tablet carrier bag. I love that you show how to make it with or without a zipper. Thanks for sharing the pattern and tutorial! I featured it on my blog: http://www.sewingshop.net/blog/cute-tablet-carrier-bag/
Debra
Wednesday 6th of January 2016
There seems to be directions missing. My Pocket (main piece color) is bigger than the liner, I followed the direction on cutting the size. I did not see any pattern pieces, am I missing something? Also on your pocket you have seem to added edging.....please explain how you did that. Wouldn't it add size to your pocket?
Craft Passion
Saturday 9th of January 2016
Hi Debra, I think you have missed the 4th step-photo and it's instruction on how to get the pocket done. This is the link to the step photo just in case you need it. Happy sewing.
Pamela Graham
Monday 21st of September 2015
Am I missing it or something?? I cannot find the pdf with your instructions, only the pattern pieces? Thanks, Pamela
Beautiful tablet cover!
Craft Passion
Monday 21st of September 2015
Hi Pamela, the pattern only consist of template of the carrier. The instruction is not the tutorial page itself. You may download it by using the green button "Print / Download PDF".
Taitnal
Thursday 28th of May 2015
Très bonne idée ce sac porte tablette ou ordinateur portable,mais heureusement que je me débrouille un peu en couture,car je trouve que pour les novices,les explications sont très compliquées.
Translation (by Google): Very good idea that bag carries tablet or laptop, but luckily I'm doing a little sewing, because I find that for novices, the explanations are very complicated.