Trick Or Treat Tote Tutorial

ALLITERATION FTW!!!

Continuing the Halloween specials, I give you a super cute trick or treating bag, guaranteed to last from year to year no matter what outfit you’re pairing it with

I would like to stand up in my own defence before I get into this one, yes, I quilt, but I am a crazy/scrap quilter, I have a phobia of seam matching and precise measurements, so my methods (and finished product!) probably make seasoned quilters and patchworkers shake in their boots and run screaming from the computer. BUT, I say the dippy way this comes together, with the offset squares (again, formed by necessity due to the seam matching fear!) and the less than perfect embroidery gives it a very “shabby chic” vibe, at least that’s what I would like to believe! If you’re new to patchwork this would be an excellent project to get you going, the small size makes it less overwhelming than a quilt, and it comes together fairly quickly so you won’t be stuck sewing tiny pieces to tiny pieces for days on end.

You will need…

• Your chosen Halloween patchwork fabric - four fat eighths (9×22inches) would be perfect for this - Check out the superb Halloween fabric selection at Fabric.com in their “Bootique”
• Fabric for lining - 1 fat quarter
• Fabric for the embelishment band
• Embroidery floss, buttons and anything else you would like to embellish your bag with!
• Rotary cutter, cutting mat and ruler. A 4.5inch quilting square will also help, but isn’t essential.

NB: All seam allowances are a quarter of an inch.

Tutorial is behind the jump –>

Cut your fabric!

• Patchwork fabric - cut twenty 4.5inch squares (if you’re using four fabrics, then five of each), then stack and cut them in half leaving you with forty 4.5×2.25inch rectangles.
• Lining fabric - two 10×12inch rectangles.
• Band fabric - one 4.25×12inch rectangle.
• Handle fabric - Four 2×12inch rectangles - I used two different fabrics for some added contrast.

With your patchwork rectangles, sew each rectangle to another, creating pairs, sew each pair to another so you have a collection of four rectangles, then sew each of these together, you will (hopefully!) end up with five strips of fabric each with eight rectangles (I know there are only four in the photo, I was apparently having issues thinking clearly yesterday!). Don’t think about which fabric you’re sewing to another, just grab them randomly. Iron the strips, pressing all the seams down in the same direction.

Take the strips back to your cutting mat and cut each of them in half, you’ll now have 10 strips of your patchwork squares, yay! Sew six of them together, offsetting the squares on the rows (mix the strips up so you don’t end up using the same pattern next to each other), this will be the back of your bag. Sew two sets of two together, and then add the plain fabric for the band in between them, this will be the front of your bag. Iron everything thoroughly then with your ruler and rotary cutter trim off the overhanging edges from offsetting the squares. Don’t sew them together just yet!

Using a chalk pencil draw your design or phrase on the band, “Happy Halloween” or just “Boo!” would work well (particularly paired with a ghostie fabric), or the child’s name would be a sweet addition. Place the front of the bag into an embroidery hoop and embroider the words, I used a range of stitches to make it look more whimsical, but if you’re not so keen on embroidery, or doing this on short notice, a simple running stitch would suffice. Go crazy with the twiddles, I added buttons, novelty buttons would be great if you could find some with a spooky theme, fabric yo-yos would look great, or a ric-rac trim.

Create the handles by sewing two strips on the handle fabric right sides together, turning inside out, pressing (are you getting sick of that iron yet?!) and then top stitching an eighth of an inch away from the edge.

Sew your lining together (leaving the top edge unstitched, obviously!), before you do so check the size of it against the outside of the bag, just incase you’ve shaved too much off the edges when cutting off the overhang from the squares, if it is too big just cut it down to size. Sew both sides of your bag right side together, I like to pin the sides first and line up the rows of squares just to create a neater look, just make sure to remove your pins before the machine goes under your needle! Trim the corners on both pieces to give you the sharpest finish when they’re turned the right way out.

Place your lining inside your outer bag, once again with the right sides together, pin the seams at each side together so they match. Pin your handles into place, matching up each side so they’re even and making sure not to twist them. They should be hidden in between the two bags with just the ends poking out. If you’ve used contrasting fabric like me, then the one facing towards the outer bag will be on the outside of the handles.

Sew around the top of the bag, starting on the inside of the back handle and finishing just after the other half of the handle, this will leave you with a gap of a couple of inches for turning in the most inconspicuous place on the bag. Turn it the right way out and iron one last time! Either use an invisible stitch to close your hole, or topstitch all the way around the bag.

And you have a totally awesome, personalised, handmade trick or treating bag, only downside is that I haven’t tested it to see it’s lolly capacity, but I’d guess a fair amount of sugar and e-numbers could be happily contained within it, if it’s likely that you’re bringing home a huge hoard, it might be worth reinforcing the handles with a few extra stitches!

Feel free to share your finished bags, and any other Halloween creations with the CraftBlog Flickr Group!

As with all the patterns and tutorials on CraftBlog, this is licensed for personal use only, please do not sell or make any profit from the Trick Or Treat Tote, either in pattern or completed form. Thank you!