Japanese Rice Bag (large size)

I have been making some Japanese Rice Bags for holding my various sewing machine foot pedals and cords, etc. That way those items stay together when I switch machines, which I do from time to time. I needed an extra large bag to hold the large foot pedal for my Elnita machine. It came with a small foot pedal, but that foot pedal that came with the machine seemed too tall and it was hard to sew for long. This extra wide and lower foot pedal cost extra to buy, but was worth it as I can sew more comfortably using it. 

I don't understand why some sewing machine brands nickel and dime you on certain items instead of just including them with the machine in the first place. This machine is a made with the quilter in mind, yet it only came with free motion quilting feet (3 different ones) and no walking foot. I had to buy the larger foot pedal, a knee lift, a walking foot, a button sewing foot, an open toe foot for appliqué. It did come with an appliqué foot, but it has a bar across it, which makes seeing more difficult when doing appliqué. (Who designs these machines? Certainly not someone who appliqués)! So while the machine itself cost less than other machines that came with all those things and more, the price was still a lot less than the machines with more bells and whistles that I wouldn't use. I suppose by not including those extras, it appears to be an even better deal at first look? Sorry, I got carried away. On to the bag!

I quilted the bag with narrow vertical quilting lines. I made 2 Kumihimo cords for the drawstrings. Kumihimo is a Japanese braiding technique and I thought it not only looked good with these rice bags, but I got to use up some ribbon and other miscellaneous yarn I had on hand in the process of making the cords too. Yay!

Sure looks like a deep bag looking down into it empty.

Inside the bag I placed the foot pedal, cord, knee lift and plastic stitch chart that fits onto the machine showing what number and mode to select for each stitch. I cut a pool noodle to slip over the end of the knee lift so that it is more comfortable to use. Don't you love all the stuff you can do with a cheap pool noodle? I do, and I don't even have a pool! 😄

In the photo above, you couldn't see the extra large foot pedal, so here it is. Now you can see why I needed a large bag to fit it.

Drawstring here is cinched closed.

I added a clear vinyl window and inserted the name of my sewing machine in the window. I could insert a different machine name in the window if I ever wanted to use this bag with a different sewing machine.

Here is the pretty bag bottom. I only had enough of the exterior fabric to cut 4 squares, but 5 squares are needed to make a rice bag for the exterior and 5 for the interior lining too. So, since the bottom is rarely seen, I chose to use this print for the bottom, which really is perfect as if you look closely at the cute exterior print of the bias tape packages, one of them has a red check just like this. I also repeated this print by using it for the drawstring tabs.

You can make each of the 4 sides of the bag in different fabrics, or make each side artsy using hand or machine stitches, appliqué, patchwork, etc. I have seen lots of great looking rice bags out there online. But for my purposes, I didn't need anything fancy to hold my sewing machine pedal and cord.

I still have a few more of these rice bags to make for some of my other machines too. I have mostly vintage machines and I wanted a bag for each of them too. I just need to cut out the material and quilt them. I have been using my sewing theme fabrics for these bags, if you have been following my other post I shared for 2 rice bags I had shared a while back. 

Happy Sewing in the New Year!!!

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