Back O' Wheelchair Bag

DIY Pattern 

By Madeleine Cantu 

 

 

 

Little bit of background on this bag: I recently came into some extra time and needed something to focus on, so I thought about doing bags to donate to the nursing facility down the road (and potentially other places). I found it interesting that a lot of the DIY bags online are for either the side of the wheelchair (which I also made a bunch of) or for walkers. At nursing facilities, most people are in a wheelchair, and on top of that, go to dialysis and could use a bag. So I ended up graduating to this bag, which is fairly simple and after I got the hang of it, is pretty quick to make. It takes maybe about 2yds of fabric, and once you get going, maybe 45 or so minutes to sew (that does not count cutting it out). The end dimensions are 18x12, and it has 5 pockets - 3 on the front which includes a small cell-phone sized pocket, and 2 larger ones inside. It does not use any sort of fasteners like Hook & Loop tape/Velcro or buttons.

Materials/Tools you’ll need: 

• Cutting board 

• Rotary cutter or fabric scissors 

• Measuring tape or similar 

• 2 types of fabric for contrast (could use one color too, whatever) of cotton or similar. These are actually cotton bedsheets I had found/had on hand, but I also have bought cotton fabric to use for future bags 

• Felt or medium weight interfacing or similar (I used acrylic felt cause I had that on hand) 

• Fabric marker, like a pencil or chalk – don't really need it but makes marking pocket seams easier 

• Of course – sewing machine and iron 😊 

 

Notes:  

• The finished measurements of the entire bag is 18x12.  
• The handles are sewn on – I did not use velcro or similar. They’re just loops. You can attach however you prefer. 
• On the inside, there are 2 pouches, with a seam just splitting the pouch in half. On the front, there are 3, with the cell phone pouch in the middle. 
• I used tracing paper to make my own pattern pieces as I plan to make several of these to donate for my current GoFundMe for the local nursing/rehabilitation facility near me. You might want to do the same, or not! 😊  

PATTERN 

Pieces are as follows (in inches): 

• (1) Front and Back - 19x13 

• (2) Inside Pocket - 19x6 

• (3) Outside Pocket - 19x8 

• (4) “Encasing” or trim/top of bag lining - 19x3 

• (5) Straps – 11x3 

 

  

 

• Cut 4 of front and back using piece (1) using main color of your fabric.
• Cut 1 lining/felt/whatever you are using using piece (1). 
• Cut 1 of inside pocket using piece (2) of contrast color of your fabric. 
• Cut 1 of outside pocket using piece (3) of contrast color of your fabric. 
• Cut 2 of “encasing” or top of bag lining using piece (4) in contrast color of your fabric. 
• Cut 2 of straps using piece (5) in main color of your fabric. 

 

 

Step 1: 

Sandwich your felt or lining between two pieces of the front/back piece (1). This will be the FRONT of your bag. 

Place the other 2 pieces of the front/back to one side, this will be the BACK of your bag. 

 

Step 2: 

(I did all ironing steps here.) 

Prepare your pockets: Folding down a ¼" or so lip on the top/bottom of the pockets, press under.  

Fold encasing in half, with wrong sides together, press. Then, fold each end to the center and press. Then fold in half and press. You now have what looks like bias tape (but it’s just not cut on the bias).  

Fold straps in half, with right sides together. (You’re going to turn this inside out later, so if you have a pattern fabric, make sure the pattern sides are facing each other/the wrong side is facing you.) Press. 

 

Take your pockets, and on what you want to be the top of the pocket, use a zig zag stitch across. On the bottom of the pocket, use a straight stitch (or if you want, a zig zag, I just used straight stitch.) 

Pin pockets to both FRONT and BACK of bag. Piece 2 will fit on Piece 1 FRONT. Place pocket 3” from top of raw edge.  

For BACK, pin pocket 3 ½” from top.  

Pin encasing to both tops of FRONT and BACK. It should look like this. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3:  

For FRONT of bag, sew straight stitch along encasing/top of bag. Then, sew straight stitch along bottom of pocket. Next, sew your center pockets as you wish. Mine were as follows - for FRONT pocket (2) I made a line at 7 1/2 and 11 1/2", so the cell phone would be in the center. For the BACK pocket (3) I just put one straight down the center at 9". Set aside. 

Step 4: 

For BACK of bag, do same as front.  

 

Step 5: 

Now, lay the FRONT piece down, pocket side up. Place BACK piece on top of it, matching raw edges, pocket piece up. Pin the sides together, leaving top piece free/unpinned - you won’t be sewing the top closed! 

 

 

 

Step 6:  

Straight stitch through all layrs from one corner, down to the bottom, over to the other corner. This will now make your overall bag. Trim corners/seams. Turn inside out, and if you wish, press. 

 

Step 7: 

Taking your straps (6), still pressed in half lengthwise, straight stitch from one end, down the long end, and leave the other end open. Turn inside out, press. 

Step 8: 

Turning the raw end of the strap under about ¾ to 1”, pin to the edge seam of the bag. I put the “clean” end of the strap on the outside, then turned under into the inside. Stitch. 

Note - I do not have a heavy duty machine so in deference to my machine and needles, I placed the loops and stitched below the top of the lining line so I wasn't going through so many layers. I made the length of the loop with this in mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it!!

My original test bags are here. As you can see, not great to use as a DIY tutorial haha. :) 

 

 

 

Hope you find this helpful/easy to follow! Posted on 10/29 as a charity endeavor. https://gofund.me/11ea50f89