Trick or Treat Tote

It is officially fall in New England, with bright red and orange and yellow leaves covering the trees and grass. I spent the past five days in New Hampshire taking care of my niece and nephew and managed to squeeze in some time to make this little Trick or Treat tote for Amelia to collect candy in on Halloween! She was more than willing to put on her ladybug costume and let me take photos of her to show you all the simple little bag. (She was actually wearing this costume most of the time I was there!)



This bag is so easy to make up that, maybe you'll start by making one as a treat bag, and then move on to making one for library books, one for groceries, and any other excuse you can come up with!

For this bag I started with these materials:
1/2 yd Peanuts The Great Pumpkin
1/2 yd Happy Sweet Alphabet in black

Since the Peanuts fabric has a specific direction and I wanted both sides of the bag to have the image facing up, I cut two pieces 14in x 7 1/2in. For the inside fabric, I cut one piece 14in x 14 1/2in. Lay the outside fabric face to face, making sure the image on both pieces are up right. Sew bottom edge. Unfold and iron flat. Now lay the black inside fabric on top of the Peanuts print, face to face. Sew the short sides together - this will make the top seam of the tote. Flip right side out and iron seams flat.

*If you are using an outside fabric with no specific direction, it's even easier! Just cut one piece each of your inside fabric and your outside fabric at 14in x 14 1/2in, lay face to face, sew the short sides together, flip right side out, and iron the seams flat.*

Now you're ready to sew up the sides of the bag. Fold bag in half, with the outside fabric face to face and sew up the sides. To finish the seams with a clean look, fake-serge them with a zig zag stitch (as explained here).



Are you ready to learn the trick for giving a flat tote a square bottom to sit on? I hope so - it's really tricky! Just kidding! It's pretty simple!

Push out one inside corner of the bag and flatten it into a triangle as shown below:



If you look inside the bag while holding it in place like this, the side seam should line up with the bags bottom seam. Does that make sense? I wanted to make the bottom of my tote about two inches wide, so I stitched across the triangle so that the line I was sewing made about two inches across (I eye-balled this, you could use a ruler and fabric pencil if you want to be precise). Sew the other corner the same way, making sure the width is equal. At this point you should flip your bag right side out to make sure it is as wide as you'd like it to be.



Here you can either leave the triangle flaps inside the bag and move on, or snip them off and fake-serge the raw edge the way I did.



Now you're ready to make some handles! Using scraps of fabric left over, cut two rectangles about 1 1/2 inches wide. The length will determine how long your handles will be. Since I was making this bag for my two year old niece, I made the handle on the shorter side, about 12 inches long, so that she could carry the bag without it dragging on the ground.

Once you have decided on how long you want your handles to be, fold the pieces in half, and sew up the long edge. Flip the tube right side out, and iron flat, with the seam running down the middle of one side.

Fold about a half inch of one raw edge under and pin to the outside of one side of the bag. Repeat for the other side of the same handle. Do the same for the other handle, being sure the placement of both lines up.



To make sure the handle is nice and secure, slide your bag under the needle, lowering the needle into the top left corner. Stitch a small square, then stitch across the square to form a "x". Once the handles are sewn on nicely, trim any loose threads, then hold up the little tote and admire your handiwork!



Next, give it to that cute little person in your life, and take them outside to fill it up with treats and treasures!


Amelia decided to fill hers up with fallen leaves.



Here are a couple suggestions of some great Halloween-themed fabrics we have available:
Aunt Grace Halloween Party
Peanuts Boo! - purple
Peanuts Pumpkin Surprise - blue
Aunt Grace Scarecrow