Japanese Rice Bags to Hold Sewing Machine Foot Pedals & Cords

I have a few sewing machines, mostly vintage machines and I needed some bags to hold the foot pedal and cord in so the pedals don't get lost or misplaced. I made a clear vinyl window for each bag and printed out the name of the machine to slip into the clear pocket so that I make sure that I have the correct pedal and cord for each machine to make it easier to find. 

The style of these bags are called Komebukuro or Japanese Rice Bag. Since this was a Japanese design bag, I decided to make my own drawstring cording using another Japanese technique called, Kumihimo, which is a braiding/cording technique done on a foam disk or traditionally with tools like the marudai & takadai that were developed to create intricate braids with greater efficiency. Marudai tool makes round braid, whereas the takadai tool makes a flat braid. You can go to this site to see some photos of the various tools, including the simple portable ones they have today, which is what I use.

Kumihimo are braided silk cords that have been made in Japan for over fourteen hundred years! 

I made Kumihimo cording for my Rice Bags by using up what I already had on hand. I am trying my best to not buy anything and to use what is available in my supplies. I used ribbon yarn in a variegated black/gray color along with a green yarn. I ran out of the one green yarn and grabbed another green yarn that was close. So the bag that holds the Brother pedal has one different green in one of the cords I was making, while the Pfaff cording was all the same green. 

These were quick to make once the quilting was done. The quilting took the most time, but you don't have to quilt the bags or quilt them so close like I did. I cut my fabric and batting oversized when I quilt as the fabric/batting squares do shrink up quite a bit. The 5 squares were squared up after quilting to 7.5" square and another 5 squares were cut for the lining, along with interfacing for the lining as well. 

Some people get artsy with each square side of their bags and do hand stitching, appliqué, piecing, embroidery, etc. You can certainly make a very unique bag by making each of the 4 side different. I didn't need such a fancy bag to hold my machine pedals in, so this was a quicker bag to make for that purpose.

My bags are happy holding the pedals and cords for my sewing machines. I recently made a large one for a newer machine that has a much larger foot pedal. I will share that one soon.

I made a clear vinyl window for each bag so I could slip in the name of the sewing machine. 

Inside each bag is my foot pedal, cord, and for the Brother machine on the left is my clip on stitch chart too.

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