Peg Bag Tutorial

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I've had a peg bag like this for several years now. It belonged to my granny and my mum brought it out from England years ago.  

Now those years of hanging on the line in the tropics have taken their toll on this peg bag..

Faded and torn, sadly I think it's better replaced than repaired.

But sentimental as I am, I wanted the same kind of peg bag to continue to remind me of my granny!

So - I made a new version!

Here's how...

I took out the coat hanger from the old peg bag.  It's just a wooden hanger wrapped in a little padding and fabric and stitched:

And I used some thin denim for the main bag, some scraps from old clothes for the applique on the front and a piece of cord for the washing line:

I measured the width of the hanger to determine how wide to make the bag - the previous one was larger than the hanger, but I wanted this one to fit more snugly.

So my hanger was 29 cm wide (11.5")

So I cut my fabric like this:

For the back: 30 cm wide by 40 cm long (11.75 x 15.75") 

For the front top: 30 x 13 cm (11.75 x 5")

For the front bottom: 30 x 29 cm (11.75 x 11.5")

For the clothes on the washing line - scraps cut into shapes of trousers, shirts etc:

First I stitched the washing line into place on the main front piece:

Then using the applique setting on my machine (or you could just use a tight zig zag) - I stitched the posts for the line:

So now the line was ready to 'peg' the clothes on!

For this I simply placed the small cut clothes items just under the line, and again used the applique setting to stitch around them.

Then changing back to a straight stitch, I stitched the pegs in:

Now all that remained was to put the bag together.

For the two parts where the opening was to be in the front of the bag I overlocked the edges and stitched a small hem in place.

(If you don't have an overlocker or serger, you could just do a double hem to hide the raw edge)

So this means the top of the front part you just put the applique on, and the bottom part of the other front piece.

Now with right sides together, I laid the front pieces on top of the back and pinned all the way around. I laid the coat hanger at the top and using a white pencil drew the curve around the top. I stitched along this curve, so the bag would sit nicely on the hanger when finished!

I also left a small gap at the top for the coat hanger to fit through - just 1cm (0.5")

Where the seams of the front two pieces met, I stitched over this part backwards and forwards several times for extra strength!

Then I stitched all the way around the edges, and overlocked (serged) the raw edges - or you could just add a tight zig zag!

Then it was ready to add the coathanger!

I pushed the coathanger through the hole at the top..

 then turned the bag right sides out over it..

So there you have my own version of Granny's peg bag:

Already filled up with pegs and being used!

For the downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here.

If you liked this tutorial - there are over 100 free sewing tutorials on

my tutorials page.

Why not take a look?