The instructions below are for a Native American (Sioux) bead bag and were published in 1932. This would be a great home school project and a fun project for anyone who wants to sew a small leather bag and do some extraordinary beadwork on it.
A Sioux Bead Bag
The Sioux maidens often carried their beads about loose and when time and place permitted, strung another necklace.
A neat little pouch or bag which was in favor among Sioux girls was made from a triangular piece of soft, well-worked leather. This triangle was about 10 or 12 inches long. The wide end was folded back and sewed with thong to make a pouch about 2 inches deep. Then this was decorated with beads or paints or shells while a slit in the top made it easy to insert a cord for carrying on the wrist.
You can easily make a bead bag in much the same way, and by a deft touch or two, turn it into a modernistic affair quite attractive.
Get a piece of soft leather or imitation leather cloth and cut from it a triangle 11 inches long and 5 inches wide at the base.
Fold this bottom edge back upon itself to form a pocket 3 inches deep and sew with soft leather thong or large cotton cord.
Trim off the lapped edge to coincide with the downward or back leather which gives the shape.
With sheep shears, slit the edge to form the fringe, taking care not to cut closer than three-eights of an inch to the seam.
You can work the design in beads or paint it on with black and yellow lacquer (or enamel) building up two or three coats so the leather won’t show through.
Finally, loop over the top tip of the triangle and sew, then insert a pretty twisted cord and tie just large enough to slip over your wrist.
This bead bag will, of course, be especially useful for carrying your handkerchief and it may be carried by slipping your belt through the cord at the top.
Source: Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 10 July 1932.
