The only bit of sewing I did all summer was on the night before we went on holiday, when I quickly knocked up a drawstring bag for Rowan to keep and transport his toy animals in. Rowan has embraced the 'terrible twos' with fiery gusto and going out armed with a handful of his favourite animals to keep him occupied is vital, otherwise he causes chaos. A little bag to hold them all was required and Alexander Henry's Teeny Tiny Zoo seemed the obvious fabric choice. 
It's not difficult to find a drawstring bag pattern or devise your own but I thought I'd post my method here as it might come in handy as a gift bag for Christmas (with the piping cord swapped for ribbon maybe). The bag takes less than 30 minutes to make, it's simple and with French seams on the inside it's nice and neat. It's ideal for holding things like playing cards too, the cardboard boxes for snap cards etc never last long in our house.
Drawstring Bag
To make a bag measuring approximately 130mm x 150mm, use an A4 sheet of paper as a template to cut out the fabric. If the fabric has a print pattern cut the fabric out landscape (the arrow on the paper in the picture indicates the print direction). 
With right sides together, fold the fabric over widthways and on the opposite side to the fold, measure 6cm down from one corner and make a 15mm deep cut in the fabric through both layers. 
Open the fabric out again and fold a 10mm deep hem along the long side nearest to the 15mm cuts (1).
From the snip in the fabric up to the top (now folded edge), iron in place a 5mm fold (2). Repeat for the other side.
Fold this 5mm fold over on itself so that it folds at the end of the cut in the fabric and iron in place (3). Repeat for the other side.
At the cut in the fabric side of this hem, tuck the corner under and iron it flat (4). 
Sew this hem in place, down along the folded edge across the tucked under corner and up the other side. Repeat for the other side. 
To make the channel for the drawstring, fold over this top section so that the top and bottom of the short side seams are together. Iron the fold in place and stitch from one side along the length as close to the edge as possible and then turn and come back just above the original seam for extra strength. 
Wrong sides together, fold the bag in half and with a seam allowance of 5mm sew the body of the bag together from the drawstring channel down, around the corner to the folded edge. 
Clip the seam at the two bottom corners. 
Turn the bag the wrong way out and tuck in the top corner of the seam just made. There is nothing really holding this tucked corner in place so you might want to add a couple of stitches for security (I never bother though).
From the end of the drawstring channel (this should give a 10mm seam allowance), sew down and around the body of the bag as before, this will seal in the raw edges so that the bag is neatly finished inside. Turn the bag the right way out. 
Wrap the end of some piping cord with sellotape to make it rigid and feed it through the channel at the top of the bag. If you're using ribbon instead of piping cord, taping the end to a blunt darning needle or similar may make it easier to feed through.
When the cord is through, tie a knot in it and cut away the excess. 