DIY Toy/Lego Bag and Playmat (2024)

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Do you have lots of toys or legos laying around? They sure can be a pain to pick up and put away. However, with this DIY Toy or Lego Bag and play mat, clean up is a lot easier. The bag cinches up into a great toy storage container, and it holds a lot of toys. This project is easy and is perfect for gifts!

LEGO Drawstring Mat

I always used to say we wouldn’t have a lot of toys for Jack. And until recently, I didn’t think we did! But then I started looking around, and I realized that we have slowly accumulated a lot over the past two years…and I kind of feel like we live in a small toy shop.

I keep telling Forrest that we can just wrap up old toysthat Jack outgrows for other kids we may have, just so we don’t become overrun with toys. He thought that was a great idea…Check back with me in a few years to see how that turns out!

Most of the toys we own aren’t big — just lots of smaller toys. These small toys are perfect for Jack’s latest favorite game – throw all the toys out from behind the couch and then do nothing with them. Jack is excellent at throwing small objects.

Needless to say, we’ve been trying to teach Jack how to clean up after himself lately (and thankfully, have had success. I was checking on him in nursery in church on Sunday, and my heart just beamed as I saw him put away a toy without being asked…ah, the simple joys in life.)

I wanted to come up with a way for us to quickly put away all of our smaller toys, as well as store them. I remember seeing toy (or lego) bags with drawstrings growing up at friend’s homes and thinking they were so cool.

So I went to Pinterest found this post from Make It Perfectfor a lego sack tutorial. It seemed simple enough and like it would be the perfect solution to our tiny toy problem.

After looking at the tutorial, I also discovered the name of this bag – a Swoop Bag. These are pretty pricey, so I was excited to see if I could make one for a fraction of the price.

I liked how they did the drawstrings on their bags, as opposed to how the tutorial at Make it Perfect made the cinch sack (the button hole thing confused me), so I decided to combine the tutorial from Make it Perfect with my own twists to resembled the Swoop Bag, and it turned out awesome.

So, by all means, this is not a super unique and original idea, but I think I put my own unique twist on it.

Jack LOVES it. He’s been dragging it around our house and is actually quite good about putting all the little toys in it and playing in it. It turns into a great play mat. I used this adorable Scenic Route fabric from Riley Blake Designs for the top layer, and this simple Colbalt fabric, also from Riley Blake Designs. Jack totally loves the cars and the roads on it and enjoys “zooming” his cars along them. It’s perfect for his age and interests.

Here’s the tutorial — it really is pretty simple and should just take 1-3 hours (depending on how fast you are!) I think this would be a great birthday gift or even a baby shower gift.

The size is plenty large for us, so the instructions below do have exact measurements. It’s about 40inches in diameter, but if you want it a different size, you should be able to easily adjust the instructions below.

Printable version available at end

Play and Go Storage Mat

Materials

2 pieces of fabric that are about 43″ wide and 56″ tall in coordinating colors (Fabric used in this tutorial – Scenic Route and Colbalt. These are no longer available online, but they are fromRiley Blake Designs, which has the CUTEST fabric. The Oh Boy!or Harvest Friends Owlwith some polka dot cotton would be PERFECT for this project.)
3 40″ long, 3″ wide strips of fabric(I would use a solid color.) You should have enough left over in scraps from cutting the fabric, but you might want to get a little extra just in case.
Coordinating Thread
Paracord in coordinating color
Measuring tape
Sewing Scissors (I love the Gingher brand)

Instructions:

1. Foldone piece of fabric intoquarters. Each edge needs to be at least 21″ (or one inch more than what you want the radius of the finished product should be. Iron the edges, and then starting at one corner, make multiple 20″ marks in an arch across the fabric. The more marks you have, the easier it will be to connect the lines and cut! After you’ve connected the line, cut along the line.

Easy DIY Drawstring Bag for Toys

Yield: 1 bag

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Active Time: 1 hour

Additional Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Materials

2 pieces of fabric that are about 43″ wide and 56″ tall in coordinating colors
3 40″ long, 3″ wide strips of fabric
Coordinating Thread
Paracord in coordinating colors

Tools

Sewing Scissors
Measuring Tape
Sewing Machine

Instructions

Fold one piece of fabric into quarters. Each edge needs to be at least 21″ (or one inch more than what you want the radius of the finished product should be. Iron the edges, and then starting at one corner, make multiple 20″ marks in an arch across the fabric. The more marks you have, the easier it will be to connect the lines and cut! After you’ve connected the line, cut along the line.
Repeat with the other piece of fabric until you have two large circles.
Cut three strips of fabric that are 40″ long and 3″ thick.
Sew them together into one large strip. Make sure to put the edges right side together, so the seam doesn’t show.
Once you have the long strip of fabric, fold the ends in about 1/2″ and sew in place.
Fold the fabric in half and sew down the long edge until you have a long tube. You don’t need to worry about the raw edge, as it will be covered in the end.
On the circle of fabric that you want on the bottom of the bag (but will ultimately be on the outside when it’s cinched up), pin the tube of fabric around the entire fabric. There should be about a 5″ gap between the ends of tube (if there isn’t, just cut off a few inches from one of the ends and re-sew.) Make sure to pin the raw edge of the tube on the outside of the circle.
Sew the tube to circle using a 1/4″ stitch
Pin the two circles to each other (right sides together), leaving a 5 or 6 inch gap on the side opposite of gap between the edges of the fabric tube that you previously sewed to the bottom circle.
Sew 1/4″ stitch around the circle, starting at the beginning of the part you left unpinned and stopping at the other end right before the gap.
Turn the material so the right sides are showing, through the gap.
Top stitch the gap closed.
Starting at one end of the fabric tube, “thread” the rope through until you reach the other end. You’ll have to do a bit of tugging and adjustment until the mat lays flat and the tubing isn’t bunched up.
You’ll likely have a good amount of extra rope left over, like below. Cut the rope so there is about 5″ sticking out of each edge.
Tie the ends of each side of the rope into a tight knot so it doesn’t go into the tube.

Let me know if you make this project — I’d love to see your take on it!