Whether you call it a fanny pack, bum bag, hip bag or belt bag, one thing’s for sure: the functionality of a hands-free bag has withstood the test of time. We love that fanny packs are making a stylish comeback and Berlin-based artist and Spoonflower designer Anda Corrie is loving the trend so much, that she designed a free bum bag pattern for the Spoonflower community! Test it out with her coloring book pattern and fabric markers or give it a try with your favorite Marketplace design.
Anda: I am proud—or maybe embarrassed—to admit that fanny packs bum bags have been a part of my wardrobe since the early ’90s. Although back then most kids at my school rocked brands like Gitano and Jansport, I think I owned something akin to this. Freebie fanny packs were a marketing craze in late ’80s in America, beloved by corporate event planners everywhere.
When I was first challenged to make a DIY tutorial inspired by the theme “traveling,” I was in the middle of cramming art supplies into an old hip pouch in preparation for a beach vacation. The best solution is usually the one right in front of you, right? I decided to create a pattern inspired by my trusty lil bum bag, and design a black-and-white print that could work as a coloring page for fabric markers.
I wanted something easy and quick to sew because I like my projects easy and quick. I even wrote an entire book of afternoon sewing projects—aka the Spoonflower Quick-Sew Project Book—lest anyone doubts my devotion to finishing a DIY in the span of two podcasts. However, I would not describe myself as an expert seamstress and my pattern drawing skills are minimal. Constructing this bag required way more trial-and-error than I thought it should, considering it is literally two crescents and a semi-circle. But the result is a cute, straightforward bum bag with a single zipper and clip buckle — you can buy the notions in amazing colors online.
Your main fabric should be something a bit durable and I suggest a natural fiber for the nicest results when coloring. Spoonflower’s Linen Cotton Canvas is perfect for this. You could also try out Lightweight Cotton Twill or Cypress Cotton Canvas. Lining can be a lightweight woven fabric like Spoonflower’s Petal Signature Cotton™, just remember to wash all the fabric first to avoid mismatched shrinkage later.
Or, you know, you can just plan to never wash your bag. However, the Edding textile pens I used to color in my fabric are waterfast up to 140ºF, so if a sunscreen bottle explodes inside it, your bag can still be saved…
How to Make a Fanny Pack
Fanny Pack Materials
- Free Bum Bag Pattern
- Fat quarter of medium-weight woven fabric in a black and white print*—I used Linen Cotton Canvas
- Fat quarter of lightweight woven fabric for lining
- 1 yard of 1” webbing
- 1” plastic clip buckle
- 12” zipper
- 60” of double fold bias binding—make your own if you don’t have any
- Sewing machine and basic sewing equipment
- Leather, denim or other heavy-duty needle for your sewing machine
Pro tip: Choose any design from Spoonflower to skip the coloring!
1. Cut out your pattern pieces.
Print and cut out the free bum bag pattern. Pin the three body pattern pieces to your fabric and cut out one of each in both your main and lining fabric. Mark or notch the center of all pieces. Fold your main fabric in half and cut out four of the side pieces.
2. Cover the ends of the zipper.
Cut a 1.5″ length of bias binding, unfold it and with right sides together, line up one raw edge with the back of one zipper end. Straight stitch along fold. Trim the zipper end if needed and re-fold the binding around it. Top stitch the opposite side. Repeat with the other zipper end.
3. Attach the zipper.
Place the two top fabric pieces wrong sides together. Center the zipper right side against the main fabric piece and pin. Using your zipper foot, straight stitch along this edge.
Cut a 14” length of binding, unfold it and line up the one edge right side against where you’ve just sewn, starting from corner of fabric. Straight stitch with a ⅛” seam. Wrap the binding around this seam and top stitch the opposite side. Trim excess binding at ends.
4. Attach the front fabric pieces.
Place the two front fabric pieces wrong sides together, and repeat the above steps with the opposite side of the zipper. Use a heavy-duty needle that will easily sew through all these layers of fabric to avoid your thread bunching underneath the needle plate (bird nesting). My machine was very unhappy and eating all my seams until I switched to a leather needle. When you’ve finished installing the zipper, machine or hand sew the excess fabric in each corner together as in the photo above — this will make it easier to line up with the back piece later.
5. Attach the webbing to the end pieces.
Cut a 4.5” piece of the webbing strap and thread it through the female end of the clip buckle. Line up the ends between two of the side pieces (right sides together) and stitch together with a ⅓” seam. Stitch the two adjacent sides with a ⅓” seam, clip corners and turn. Press these pieces with your iron on low or finger press.
Line up one raw end of the rest of the webbing between the second two side pieces (right sides together) and repeat as above.
6. Attach the webbing and end pieces to the front pieces.
Place the main and lining back pieces wrong sides together. Pin the open seams of side pieces to main back piece as shown, about ¾” from corners. Baste in place.
7. Stitch the bum bag pieces together.
Roll up the straps and pin them to the middle of the back piece to get them out of the way. Place the front piece on top of this, main fabrics together. Open the zipper a little to make it easier to turn later.
Stitch a ⅓” seam around perimeter and then trim the seam to ⅛”.
8. Finish the inside edges.
Unfold the rest of your binding and pin one edge against the above seam (right sides together), all the way around the perimeter cutting away any excess at the end. Stitch it on ⅛” away from said seam, then refold the binding up and around to the other side of the seam, like you did to the zipper.
9. Turn the bum bag right side out.
Turn bum bag right-side out and thread the strap through the male end of the clip. Try the bag on and cut the webbing shorter to reduce the excess. Fold the raw end of the strap over 1″ and top stitch to keep from fraying. All done!
Next, the fun part: Coloring! These pens are soooo fun. The colors are super vibrant and opaque, I only needed to go over an area once to get a completely solid field of color. Their opaque quality makes them not as suitable for washes and blending, although I was able to get a gradient by using lighter colors on top of the darker colors and coloring with less pressure at the areas where the colors needed to blend. Test each pen first on a scrap of your main fabric before coloring, as sometimes the cap color differs slightly from the ink. Iron the bag without steam when you’ve finished coloring to set.
Now you have a bag that is perfect for carrying your pens and a small notebook for sketching on holiday. Or for holding your essentials while you stroll around a new city.
About the Guest Author
Anda Corrie is an American illustrator, designer, author, speaker, and artist living in Berlin with her little family. See more of Anda’s makes and designs on Instagram @andacorrie.
This was such a fun project. I love the extra attention to using bias tape for those raw edges. I got a little extra and added a back pocket to my Bum bag cuz I like separate pockets for cash.
Only snag I ran into is When printing the pattern, I’m in the United States so we use letter size paper which is 8½ by 11 and your A4 paper is a little bit different with the sizing so the scale of the pattern pieces didn’t come out quite right. I just added about ¼ inch when cutting out the pattern to get it to the correct size. Your Instagram quick video helped to see some of the steps.
I will be making plenty of these Beach Bum bags as gifts. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this and how you made it work!
Since different printers have different settings, it’s always important to double check that the test square is printing properly!
Best,
Betsy
Spoonflower
I’ve tried to make this twice. Each time the zipper is longer than the fabric. I’ve double checked the pattern. A video would be really nice with this. The directions are so vague. Or more pictures would be helpful. Thumbs down.
Thanks for sharing, Alli, and I’m sorry it was so frustrating.
We’ve heard that in some cases the pattern was printing at a lower percent than 100%, which then causes the pattern to be smaller. Therefore, I just wanted to check that you printed the pattern at 100% and that the test square measured 1″ x 1″?
In case it helps, I checked with a coworker who recently made this bag and she noted that when printed correctly, a 12″ zipper should fit and the ‘fold’ line on the back piece should measure 6.5″.
If there was a part of this that you feel needs more instruction, please let us know.
Thanks!
Best,
Betsy
Spoonflower
This is the best pattern and instructions I have ever followed! I haven’t sewn anything in so long, I wanted to get back into it with a small project and this was perfect! My little bum bag turned out so well! My daughter and granddaughter want one too! Thank you for the free pattern and instructions:)
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this pattern, Tamra! Hooray!
And well done you for picking up sewing again! 🙂
Best,
Betsy
Spoonflower
Hello, the pictures are great but don’t show all of the project just a snapshot on them which makes understanding how to put this all together very confusing. Has the video tutorial mentioned in Feb 2022 been finalised please as I would love to finish it off. I am stuck just over half way through. Thank you
Hi Toni!
We don’t have a video tutorial for this, but my colleague Sarah reminded me of an Instagram Reel that shows the completed project, which may help you or anyone else looking for more visual information, which I’ll add to the bottom of this post.
Thanks!
Betsy
Spoonflower
I’ve been sewing for a long time. I am probably more of a visual learner so would either need lots more pics or a video
Hi Lisa!
Does that mean you have questions about this pattern or things that weren’t illustrated in this post?
If so, please do let us know what’s tripping you up.
We have updating this post on our to-do list by the way, so your comments have been noted!
Best,
Betsy
Spoonflower
I want to learn
I think the instructions have an error towards the end which causes confusion. Step 8 is titled ”Attach the Bum Bag Strap” but the strap, if you mean the waist belt webbing with belt clip, has already been attached in a prior step. I think step 8 is about enclosing the raw edge inside lining seam with binding, however this doesn’t take 32” of binding, as the instructions imply.
Thanks so much for your feedback, Patty. This post has been updated to correct step 8.
Best,
Anna
Spoonflower
With a lot of perseverance with the instructions I successfully made this today. Made a few mistakes along the way but I am fairly new to sewing. Instructions and pictures could definitely have been clearer.
I’m feeling so stupid. Four afternoons in a row I’ve sat down to work on this—I’ve just now decided to scrap the whole thing. I’m definitely new-ish to sewing, but I’ve made 8-10 purses in the last few months and thought I was getting the hang of it.
It is absolutely entirely beyond me how these pieces are supposed to fit together. After many hours and cutting the pattern out again on paper so I could get a better idea, I did eventually get the zipper bit (I think)
Absolutely 0 clue where the back piece of this goes and how to attach it. I’ve shown to it to 3-4 different people and they also have absolutely no idea!!! Super, super sad about it.
Riley, I’m so sorry for the frustration you’ve experienced with this pattern! Our team is currently working on a video tutorial to accompany these instructions and I hope that will help! Be sure to follow us on Instagram for the video, and we’ll be sure to include it here as well. I do hope that will help! Best, Theresa
I agree, for newbies this is not so easy even though there are just a few parts. I need some better directions and more photos.
Hi Ryan,
Based on feedback, we are currently working on updating this pattern + tutorial. Thanks for your patience!
-Anna
Spoonflower
How long does it take to make counting getting the supplies and fabric ready?
Hi Mari, great question!
This fanny pack could take anywhere from 45 minutes to a couple of hours to make, but that does depend on your skill level and how comfortable you are working with the pattern.
Happy sewing,
Anna
Spoonflower
I was looking for something to sew for Operation Christmas Child gifts that was a little different than just a coin purse, tote bag or pencil case. I think this will be great. Thanks so much!
Thanks for the cute pattern. You always add a PRINTER version to download but I do no see it here. Again thanks.
Hi Deborah,
The printable pattern can be found in the materials list and also here. Happy sewing!
Best
Anna
Spoonflower
This is so cute! And love the idea of “coloring book” fabric!
Please can you give the pattern with measurements to us understand better
Hi Cynthia,
Thanks for your interest in this project! The pattern can be found here. Every page of the pattern has a one inch test square in the bottom right corner so you can make sure the print out measurements are correct. Best of luck with your project!
-Amy
Spoonflower
Hello, how can I adjust the pattern so that I can use a 9in zipper?
Thank you!
Hi Elise, since the pattern is written for a 12″ zipper, we recommend reducing your fabric pieces by 3″ in width to accommodate your zipper size. I hope that helps! – Theresa from Spoonflower
That’s what I was wondering too. All I have ‘on hand’, or 9 inch zippers.
*are, no ‘or’
the scale for printing says 68% is that correct? also if 68% would that be just right for a child to use?
I don’t think I saw the measurements of the finish product
Having a hard time getting bag look nice at the ends of the zipper .
it is very bulky
Hi Bonnie, make sure you’re trimming the seam allowances on the inside of the bag. Cutting triangles into the seam allowance can also help with bulk! Happy sewing, Theresa from Spoonflower
Are there any points 7 and 8? I can’t see them.
Hi Sheila,
So sorry for the confusion! It appears that there was a typo with the numbers, but Anda has confirmed that no steps have been left out. The numbered steps have been updated–thank you for pointing that out to us!
Laurie S.
Spoonflower
Hi! I can’t find information about seam allowance. Does it mean it is included in the pattern? I hope so as I just cut out my fabric without seam allowance. I was worried it would be too big as I’m making it for the kids lol
Hi Dominica,
A 3/8″ (1cm) seam allowance is included in the pattern. I hope that helps, but if you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask!
Please note that the pattern is to be printed on A4 paper to get the correct pattern size.
keren
Sangat bermanfaat
Terimakasih
First time making a bag or even sewing a zipper for that matter and completed it almost 100% successfully on the first shot (one lining was wrong-side out). I uploaded the pattern to a Cricut template and cut the whole thing out using a machine, willing to share if you\’re interested!
I was intending to attempt to do this! Hopefully I can figure it out easily too..
Hi Erin,
We’d love to see your version and get a better understanding of how you used your Cricut to make this fanny pack!
Wow … Just downloaded this and can’t wait to have a go , thank you Anda!!!
What is the measurement for the binding? Is it 1/2 inch?
Hi Marissa,
We suggest a 1/2″ double fold bias tape.