Catch everyone's eye with this ruffled canvas bag DIY

A plain, unadorned canvas bag is useful for carrying various items for daily activities, but the bag itself isn't very exciting or attractive. Give your bag a little flair and add ruffled edging to it. All it takes is some ribbon, pins, thread and a needle. The stitch used is called a running stitch. This means a simple up-and-down stitch, but with space between stitches, which allows the ribbon to slide along the thread, creating the ruffles.

The tutorial shows only one side of the bag being embellished, but if you wish, you can repeat all the following steps to create a second ribbon ruffle for the other side. You may use any ribbon color you want, but a bright and/or bold color makes a statement against a neutral canvas bag.

Materials
- Natural canvas bag, 16 inches wide
- Maroon thread
- Sewing needle
- Scissors
- Satin maroon ribbon, 2 inches wide
- Straight pins

1. Place the bag flat and smooth it out. Cut off 30 inches of thread and double knot it at the end. Thread the needle.

2. Cut off 34 inches of ribbon. Sew a running stitch along the ribbon's length from one end of the ribbon to the other, leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Only do one side of the ribbon. Slide the ribbon down and bunch it as you sew. Knot off the end and trim excess thread when you are done.

3. Fold down the front top edge of the bag 1 inch. Place the ribbon along the inside of the edge with the sewn part along the bottom. Pin the ribbon in place.

4. Sew the ribbon in place with a short running stitch and knot the end. Trim excess thread.

5. Repeat all the steps if you want to decorate the opposite side of the bag.