Stitch Yourself a Halloween Treat Bag

A little Halloween How-to for making a Pumpkin Treat Bag to fill with your favourite spooky candy!

This takes about 30 mins start to finish with the sewing machine but you can easily hand stitch it.

You will need:

Pumpkin coloured fabric for your bag body

Stalk colour felt for the top

Black felt for spooky features

Small piece of felt for eyes

30cm of ribbon or string

Needles, threads, pins and scissors

(Sewing machine optional)

Yummy chocolates to fill and nibble as you sew :)

First cut out your pieces using the pattern here, two of the body, stalk and eye.

It may be easier to make the mouth by taking a rectangle and cutting small triangles from each side.

Pin the felt tops to the body, wrong side together.

Stitch along the top edge of both pieces.

Fold along the seam so felt top is on the right side of your pumpkin fabric and press.

Stitch along the bottom edge of felt 'stalk' (no need to tuck the edge as its lovely unfrayable felt).

Stitch a line along the middle, making sure the width between middle and bottom stitches is slightly wider than your ribbon/string.

Stitch on your pumpkin features.

I used white highlights for my eyes as I like my pumpkins cute, but red looks spooky (three pictures above) and yellow flames look like a real pumpkin (two pictures above)

Pin right sides together, taking care to line up your stalk stitch lines.

Leaving the space between the middle and bottom stalk stitches open, sew around the edges to make your bag.

Turn right the right way and press.

Those much talked of bottom and middle stitches make the space for your drawstring. In the centre, snip two slits 2cm apart in the stalk felt between the 2 lines. Just the felt layer, don't cut through the pumpkin fabric. Using a large needle or safety pin, thread your ribbon through the stalk.

As the side seam is left open, your needle and ribbon will come out and back into the fabric here making it easier to thread.

 If you accidentally sewed up the drawstring gap at the seam, you can snip a couple more slits in the felt at each side and it will work just the same with no fiddly unpicking :)

  

Stuff with candy and tie ribbon to make a fat round pumpkin treat bag with a gather stalk.

Give to your favourite Trick or Treater!

xo