Sew a Quick and Easy Lingerie Bag

In this post, I’ll show you how to make a lingerie bag in which to wash delicate or easily damaged items. I bought one of these, and it fell apart after a couple of washes—it just disintegrated and the zipper ripped out. So I decided to sew a sturdier one, while still making it pretty, of course! I made this one out of lace fabric, cord, and a drawstring toggle, since the zipper on the store-bought one caused problems. Read on for the free tutorial and pattern.

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Materials Used

Here’s what I started with. I went with a black and white theme. The white lace has black highlights in it as well.

Cutting the Fabric

I folded my lace in half and placed the fold on the far right side of the cutting mat. I made the bag 13” tall and 16” wide on the fold, so it’s really 32” wide when opened up.

Finishing the Edges

Lace is a pretty flimsy fabric, and I wanted to make sure that the edges would hold up to a lot of washing. For the top edge of the fabric, I used lace seam binding tape to reinforce it and give it more durability.

Sew the seam binding onto the right side of the lace fabric, letting the edge of the seam binding poke over the top of the fabric slightly (maybe 1/8” or so). You’re going to fold this down later to create a tunnel for the drawstring, so you want it to completely cover the raw edge of the lace fabric. I used a wide zigzag stitch to attach the seam binding.

Then I used a rolled hem foot to enclose the raw edges on the side of the bag and along the bottom of the bag.

Sewing the Seams

Once all of your raw edges are enclosed, pin or clip together the bottom and side of the bag, right sides together. Along the side of the bag, leave the top 2 1/2” open. Don’t sew above where the last red clip is on the side seam. Use a 1/4” seam for the bottom and side. The top will be turned down for the drawstring.

Because of the 1/4” side seam, the unsewn part at the top of the bagwon’t match up with the bottom part of the bag exactly anymore—it will be slightly wider. Fold down these unsewn edges, line them up with the fold of the seam, and then sew them down.

Now you can fold down the top part to create the tunnel for the drawstring to go through. Fold it down so that the edge of the lace tape is 1 1/4” from the top of the bag. Sew along the black lace tape all the way around the bag. The right sides of the bag are still together. You’re working on the inside of the bag.

Finishing the Bag

Now you can turn the lingerie bag right side out and add the drawstring. I used a safety pin to pull the string through the tunnel at the top. Then add your drawstring toggle and knot the edges of the cord so it won’t come out.

The toggle will help hold your bag closed in the wash and keep everything inside.

The Finished Lingerie Bags

Here are the two delicates bags that I made. I cut them to the same size initially, but my hemming skills varied from bag to bag, so I ended up with two slightly different sizes. Each one can hold two bras comfortably.