Bottle Bag Tutorial

I've designed a small cooler bag for four half-liter bottles to keep your delicious drinks nice and cold.

It is basically sewn like a tote bag, but insulated with Insul-Bright so that the chilled drinks stay nice and cold on an outing or in the garden. Inside, the bag also has a generously sized “cooling cross”, a divider sewn on two sides, which is also lined with Insul-Bright.

The project is suitable for people who have already sewn normal, lined tote bags, i.e. have the basic principle with the corners and the handles down. Then the sewn-in divider will also work well.

I used a medium-weight fabric for the outside, canvas or Home Dec fabric would certainly also be good. Or a strong, coated fabric. I used a very thin coated cotton fabric for the inside: That way the condensation can't run out.

Now let's get to work on this cute little 4 x 0.5 liter version of a cooler bag!

What you need

Outer bag -- Fabric 1: 2 rectangles 32 x 36 cm (wxh) + Insul-Bright: 2 rectangles 32 x 35 cm (wxh)
Inner pocket -- Fabric 2: 2 rectangles 31.5 x 35.5 cm (wxh)
Cooling divider -- Fabric 2: 2 squares 22 x 22 cm + Insul-Bright: 2 squares 21 x 21 cm
Handle -- Fabric 2: 2 rectangles 12 x 30 cm
Bottom reinforcement -- 1 solid piece of cardboard approx. 15 x 15 cm

I always sew with a 1 cm seam allowance, stitch length 2.5 or 3.5 when topstitching

Outer pocket

Layer the fabrics as follows:
Insul-Bright, fabric 1 right side up, fabric 1 wrong side up, Insul Bright.

Place the Insul-Bright at the bottom of the bag flush with the outer fabric so that one centimeter is “missing” from the outer fabric at the top. This makes it much easier to press the top edge over later.
Sew three sides together: the two long sides and one short side. Then gather the corners at the bottom of the short side to make the bag square: use a ruler to draw a line that is 7.5 cm long on each side of the center seam. The center seam must be at a 90° angle to the line drawn. Cut off the excess fabric behind the corner seams. Turn right side out and press out the corners. Fold fabric 1 over the Insul-Bright edge at the top edge and press. If necessary, cut the piece of cardboard to size and insert. Done!

Cooling divider

Two very flat “cushions” are sewn, which are open on one side. First layer fabric 2 with the right side facing up, then fabric 2 with the wrong side facing up and finally the Insul Bright, which is 1 cm shorter on all sides than the fabrics. Place this in the middle and pin in place, then sew together on three sides (again both long and one short). With the 1 cm seam allowance, the Insul Bright is just caught when sewing, but does not create such thick seams. After sewing, cut off the corners and turn the piece right side out. The Insul bright is now inside, one short side is open. Smooth everything out and pin in place, then topstitch close to the edge with a slightly longer stitch on the three sewn sides. Repeat the process for the second “cushion”.

Now place both cushions on top of each other so that one open side is on the right and the other on the left. In the photo below, the two parts are not yet aligned at the top edge, but of course they have to be.

Slide until the open side protrudes a good centimeter. Pin in place. Now measure 10 cm from the sewn side to the center, mark and sew once lengthwise to join the cushions.

You now have a divider (cross) with two open and two closed sides (always alternating), which can now be inserted into the inside pocket.

Inner pocket

Lay one piece of fabric 2 with the right sides facing up, measure 5.5 cm from the top edge (yellow pin in the picture) and mark. Now place one open side of the divider at this point. In the picture below, both the inner fabric and the open side of the divider are finished, but I left the divider protruding slightly to the left for safety reasons. Pin in place for the time being.

Now place the second piece of fabric 2 on top, wrong side up. Pin everything in place. Sew together, making sure that only one side of the divider is sewn! The other sides of the divider can be folded away or pinned in place with clips (see picture above). Fold and sew the second open side of the divider on the other side in the same way.
This is what the sewn-in divider looks like now: firmly attached to both sides of the inner pocket, the other two “wings” are loose.

Carefully smooth and pin the bottom seam, then sew. As with the outer pockets, now make the two corners boxy: gather them together and measure 7.5 cm at right angles to the left and right of the center seam to create a square pocket measuring approximately 15 x 15 cm. Mark, sew and cut off the excess. This is what it looks like before the corners are cut off:

Cut off the corners. Then quickly fold the top edge one centimeter outwards and iron it in place and the inner pocket with cooling divider is finished!

Joining the parts together

Now insert the inner pocket with built-in divider into the outer pocket, making sure that the side seams meet. Pin and sew until the top edges, which have been pressed over, lie nicely on top of each other. Pin well. Topstitch the top edge once all the way around. Use a larger stitch and thread in a matching color (matching top and bobbin thread).
Now it's almost done, the bag is finished, only the straps are missing.

Handle

Iron the two pieces of fabric once lengthwise to the center as for a quilt binding, fold the short ends over approx. 0.5 cm and iron in place. (As ironing over the short ends never “holds”, I simply take some double-sided adhesive tape, the very narrow one, and stick the sides down. Just for your information :-) Then fold both long sides to the marked center line, iron, fold everything back to the center. Topstitch once all around and the handle is finished. Make another one.
Pin each handle 7.5 cm from the edge seam of the outer pocket approx. 3 cm deep and topstitch in place with a rectangle with a center cross, stitching the seams several times if you like, it should hold well. Do this a total of four times.

DONE!!!

I hope you have lots of fun with my tutorial - and of course with your delicious, cool drinks on hot summer days :-)