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Sewing The Trick Or Treat Bag Together

Sewing The Trick Or Treat Bag Together

by Jennifer Houlden

Yesterday was a big day with the addition of two applique designs to the bag and creating a box bottom on both the inner and outer bags. With all that done we can now get down to the business of sewing the trick or treat bag together so it can be ready to hold the loot on Halloween.

Making the Handles

First though the handles need to be made. Cut two pieces 4 ½″ x 18″ from the same fabric as what the inner bag is made of. This will make a short handle about 9 inches high. A longer handle can be made by cutting the pieces longer.

I decided to add a piece of fusible fleece to the inside of the handles just to make them a bit sturdier and easier to hold on to. I cut the fusible fleece smaller than the handle pieces so that the fleece wouldn’t get caught in the seam allowance. Cut two pieces 3 ½″ x 17″. Fuse to the wrong side of the handle pieces following the manufacturer’s directions.

A piece of low loft batting can be used in place of the fusible fleece and glued in place with 505 spray adhesive. 

To make the handles fold the pieces in half with wrong sides together and sew down the length of the piece. Turn the tube right side out. Press the piece flat with the seam allowance at one side. Then top stitch ⅜″ from each edge of the handle. I used a single straight stitch but the Pfaff Ambition 1.0 does have a topstitch stitch (#2) which is a nice thick stitch that would stand out really well.

Handles complete with topstitching

Handles complete with topstitching

Attaching the Handles to the Bag

Pin the handles to the right side of the inner lining bag which at this point is still wrong side out. Place an end of each handle an equal distance from the sides of the bag to center the handle on the bag. Stitch in place with a ⅛″ seam allowance.

Pin handles to inner bag

Pin handles to inner bag

Sewing the Two Bags Together

Place the outer bag, which is now right side out inside the inner bag – right sides will be facing each other and the handles will be between the two bags. Pin the top edges of the bags together matching up the side seams. I use the long flower headed quilting pins for this as they are easy to grab and remove as I’m sewing the two bags together.

Remove the tool box from the machine so that the free arm is usable. The free arm is the part of the machine that houses the bobbin case and allows round objects to be sewn easily such as bag openings, sleeves into arm holes and so on.

Tool box removed to reveal free arm

Tool box removed to reveal free arm

Slide the end of the bag over the free arm and stitch the bags together with a ⅜″ seam allowance. The one thing the Ambition does not have is an alarm for when the bobbin runs out and I was happily sewing away to the end when I suddenly realized my pieces were not sewn together. But it does have an alarm to let me know that I need to put the presser foot down before I can start sewing which has come in very handy.

As I was sewing today I did find that I had issues with the top thread being pulled out of the needle and found that I had to have about a 4 inch tail of thread behind the presser foot which I held onto with my thumb. Sometimes I would forget to have the long tail and then I would be re-threading the machine – practice makes perfect they say.

Sewing bags together

Sewing bags together

Pull the quilted bag through the opening in the bottom of the inner bag. If you forgot to leave the opening then you will have to do some ripping…

Quilted bag being pulled through opening

Quilted bag being pulled through opening

When the bag is pulled through, the whole unit will look like a big long tube with handles in the middle.

The two bags make a tube

The two bags make a tube

Sew up the opening in the bottom of the inner bag and push it down into the quilted bag. Press the top edge flat. You may wish to do a topstitch around the top of the bag.

The Completed Trick or Treat Bag

Pumpkin Side

The pumpkin side of the bag

The pumpkin side of the bag

Ghost Side

The ghost side of the bag

The ghost side of the bag

Sewing the trick or treat bag together is complete and ready for the 31st. That’s it for me this month I’ll see you next month to make some quick and easy Christmas pieces.

Happy Quilting

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2 comments

JoKing January 8, 2015 - 5:52 pm

These are just adorable. I wish i was that handy.

Reply
Jennifer Houlden January 8, 2015 - 8:23 pm

Thanks Jo.

Reply

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