Bag Lady : Sewing a Trick-or-Treat Bag

In my "spare time" (aka:  late at night when the kiddos are sleeping), I am a wild and crazy crafter.   I find an idea I like and I work with it 'til I'm sick of it. Right now, my obsession  is bags.  I have decided to start a series, titled "Bag Lady", to share my creations. Conveniently, this will also help in managing my time wisely (see post here), as I will be working on a blog post AND a project simultaneously!

So, with out further ado, here is Sewing a Trick-or-Treat Bag. These are the bags I have made so far, as modeled by my little guy. They turned out to be fairly large, but hey, he'll grow! If you are making it for a little one, and are worried about the safety factor, the pattern size can easily be adjusted, or the handles made shorter.

What you will need:
material for front and back
material for sides and bottom
sturdy ribbon or webbing for handles
thread, needles, scissors, sewing machine, iron
***idea- recycle old fabric by using old tablecloths, sheets (for the back and front panels) and jeans (for the side and bottom panels)

Step 1- Make the patterns.
Front and back panel- 20x16 inches
Side panels- 22x5 inches

Bottom- 16x5 inches

Step 2- Cut the material.

Step 3- Pin, with good sides together, a side panel to the right side of the front panel,  and a side panel to the right side of the back panel, like this:

and sew.

Step 4- Pin good side of back panel to good side of the side panel that is attached to the front panel, then pin the good side of the front panel to the good side of the side panel that is attached to the back panel (this makes sense in my head, if it is confusing let me know)

(my assistant is pointing to pins) and sew.

Step 5- Pin the bottom fabric to, well, the bottom (in my experience I have found it almost impossible to line this up perfectly, but that's me...)

and sew (heads up on this- when running through sewing machine pay attention to what is getting sewn together).

Step 6: Pin down and iron top hem

and sew.

Step 7- Turn bag right side out. Should look something like this:

Step 8- Turn up, pin and iron ends of handles

and sew.

Step 9- Pin one handle to where you want it on the front of the bag, and pin the other handle to the matching spot on the back of the bag

and sew.

Step 10 (optional)- Tack all of the corners to make the bag more shapely. Sorry for hard to see pictures!
Bottomed pined to tack with about 1 centimeter stitch:

 Top pined to tack with same size stitch:

 

And here again is the finished product:

And with my lovely model and assistant: