Why Linen, and Why a Drawstring Bag

Bread needs to breathe, but not too much. A loaf dropped straight into a plastic bag will sweat, and that dampness turns a decent crust soft within hours. Left entirely open on the board, it stales by teatime. A simple linen drawstring bag sits happily in the middle: it lets a little air move around the loaf while holding in enough moisture to keep the crumb tender. Linen is the traditional choice because it is strong, absorbent and gets softer with every wash. It also looks the part hanging from a hook beside the oven.

This is a genuinely beginner-friendly project. It is two rectangles of fabric, four straight seams and a channel for the cord. An experienced sewer can finish one in half an hour; if you are new to a machine, allow an afternoon and a pot of tea. Make the first one for yourself, then make three more for Christmas presents.

What You Will Need

• Fabric: half a metre of medium-weight unbleached linen, around 200–260 gsm. Linen-cotton union is cheaper and slightly easier to press. Half a metre at 140cm wide is enough for two bags.
• Cord: 1.2 metres of cotton drawstring cord, 4–5mm thick. Natural or cream looks best. Avoid nylon cord, which slips undone.
• Thread: cotton or cotton-wrapped polyester in a colour close to the linen. Linen thread is lovely but can be stiff to work with.
• Tools: fabric shears or a rotary cutter, pins or sewing clips, an iron, tailors' chalk, a safety pin or bodkin for threading, and a sewing machine or a hand needle.

Wash and press your linen before you cut. It shrinks, sometimes by several per cent, and you do not want that happening after you have sewn a neat seam. A hot iron with plenty of steam is your friend here; linen presses beautifully once it has been dampened.

Cutting Your Pieces

These measurements make a finished bag roughly 30cm wide and 40cm tall, which comfortably holds a 800g loaf or a batch of rolls. Cut two rectangles measuring 32cm by 48cm. That gives you a 1cm seam allowance on each side, 1cm at the base, and enough fabric at the top to fold a deep casing.

Trim the cut edges straight and pull away any loose threads. Unbleached linen frays readily, so if you are not sewing straight away, run a quick zigzag along all four edges of each piece to hold it together.

Sewing the Bag Together

Place the two rectangles right sides together, matching the edges. Pin along both long sides and the bottom, leaving the top open.

Sew the side seams and the base with a 1cm seam allowance, backstitching at each end. If your machine has one, a slightly longer stitch length — around 2.8mm — suits linen better than a short, tight stitch.

Now deal with the raw edges. You have three options:

• Zigzag or overlock the seam allowances together and press them to one side.
• Sew a French seam: trim the allowance to 5mm, turn the bag inside out, and stitch again 7mm from the fold. This hides every raw edge and is beautifully hard-wearing.
• If you are hand sewing, use a backstitch and then bind the seams with a strip of bias tape.

Optional but worthwhile: box the bottom corners. With the bag still inside out, pinch a corner so the side seam meets the base seam, forming a triangle. Measure 4cm in from the point, draw a line across, and stitch along it. Trim away the triangle. Repeat on the other corner. This gives the bag a flat base so it stands up on the worktop.

Turn the bag right side out and press the seams flat with a hot iron.

Making the Drawstring Channel

Press the top edge of the bag under by 1cm all the way round, then fold it down again by 4cm to create the casing. Press this fold firmly — a crisp crease here makes the stitching much easier to keep straight.

Stitch close to the folded edge, all the way around. Then stitch a second line along the lower edge of the casing, about 3.5cm below the first. Leave a 2cm gap in this second line on each side, positioned right at the side seams. Backstitch either side of each gap so it does not pull open.

Thread your cord through the safety pin or bodkin and feed it in through one gap. Work it all the way around the channel and bring it out through the other gap. Pull the two ends level, knot them together firmly, and trim the tails. Slide the knot to hide inside the casing when the bag is closed. That single loop of cord tightens from both sides at once and is far less fiddly than two separate strings.

Using and Caring for Your Bread Bag

Let your loaf cool completely before it goes in — trapping steam from a warm loaf defeats the whole purpose. Keep the bag on the worktop or in a bread crock rather than the fridge, which dries bread out faster than anything.

A linen bag will keep a homemade loaf at its best for a day or two. After that, revive a stale loaf by sprinkling it with water and warming it in a low oven for ten minutes. For longer storage, slice the loaf and freeze it in the bag.

Turn the bag inside out over the bin every few days to shake out the crumbs. Wash it occasionally in a cool machine cycle with a mild detergent, and skip the fabric softener, which coats the fibres and reduces their breathability. Line dry, then press while slightly damp. With that small amount of care, one bag will see you through years of Saturday morning baking.