This can be a project bag for yourself, or a Trick or Treat bag for the kids. You can make your tote bag as simple or as nifty as you need. For kids’ Halloween bags, we suggest you go pretty simple—after all, they’re probably going to toss it in a corner the day after Trick or Treating is done.

Materials

All the materials listed below are available in a kit to make this bag. It can save on materials, since you just pay for the actual amounts you need for the bag. And it will save a lot of time. Comes with black, purple, or yellow background fabric.

• 17-1/2” x 33” piece of bag fabric – cotton, or canvas, or upholstery
• 17-1/2” x 33” piece of lining fabric – poly/cotton is fine
• 16” x 32” piece of batting or interfacing (batting if you like it puffy, interfacing if you want it stiffer but thin)
• 9” x 7-1/2” piece of orange for the pumpkin
• 7” x 4” piece of beige or muslin for pumpkin flesh
• 9” x 7-1/2” piece of yellow for lighted pumpkin interior
• 6” x 3” piece of green for stem and leaf
• 12” x 7-1/2” piece of Wonder Under or Steam-a-Seam
• 7” x 4” piece of Steam-a-Seam or Wonder Under
• 9” x 7-1/2” piece of stabilizer (like Stitch and Tear
• Two 32” x 1” webbing strips for bag straps

• First assemble the pumpkin for the front of the bag.
  • Print out all pattern pieces. [pattern for orange]  [pattern for beige and green]  (Pattern does not include seam allowances. If you intend to use needle-turn appliqué, add 1/8” around all pieces.)
  • Apply Wonder-Under or Steam a Seam to the orange, green, and beige fabrics (I prefer Wonder-Under for the orange and green and Steam-a-Seam for the beige, but if you only have one or the other, you can make do).

  • Spray the main pumpkin pattern piece lightly with basting spray, lay it over the right side of your pumpkin orange fabric, and cut out the outside and inside lines.

  • Lay the pumpkin over your yellow fabric, peeking behind to make sure that the yellow extends evenly beyond the cutouts on the pumpkin on all sides. Use a pencil or marking pen to trace the bottom lines of all the cutouts onto the yellow fabric.
  • Cut out the beige pieces. If not using Steam-a-Seam, spray pieces lightly with basting spray. Remove the pumpkin fabric and lay the beige pieces over your traced lines on the yellow, so that the beige pieces will be from ¼” to ½” above the lines (precision is not important here, you just want them all to be fairly even with each other).

  • Lay the pumpkin back on top of the beige pieces and make sure everything looks good, adjusting if necessary.

  • Iron the beige pieces to the yellow, and appliqué them to the yellow background using your favorite method (We used a satin stitch on the sewing machine). If you’re in a rush and don’t need this to last forever, you can skip the appliqué and the fusible interfacing will keep your pumpkin together.
  • Lay the pumpkin back on top, press lightly in the center to activate the fusible (be sure to use a Teflon sheet or scrap of used Wonder Under paper underneath to protect your ironing board—in a pinch you can use scrap paper but peel it off while still warm), and appliqué, using your favorite method. Trim the yellow to match the orange.
• Your finished bag will be 16” square. To center the 8” pumpkin on the front, measure in 4-1/2” from the left side of your 33” piece of bag fabric. You probably want it roughly in the middle from top to bottom. Don’t try to get it perfectly squared up—a little jaunty angle just adds to the charm.

• Position the pumpkin, press to fuse, and appliqué in place. Lay the stem on top of the pumpkin (placement is completely up to you, remember every pumpkin is different). Appliqué.

• On the top long edge of each fabric (outside and inside pieces), fold over 1 inch to wrong side and press.
• Quilt the outside fabric to the batting or interfacing, letting the seam allowances hang over around all sides, and making sure to keep that top seam that you’ve pressed clear—you don’t want to accidentally quilt it to the batting.
• Fold outside bag fabric right sides together and sew the side and bottom with a ½ inch seam, just barely catching the batting in your seam, and leaving the top side open, and 1” seam unfolded. Turn right side out.
• Fold lining fabric right sides together and sew two sides with a 5/8” seam, leaving the side with the pressed seam open. Do NOT turn right side out.
• Slip the lining inside the fabric bag. On outer and inner fabrics, fold down the pre-pressed seam allowances.
• Pin the webbing strips inside the two layers of the bag, extending down about 2” from the top. They should be about 7” apart on centers (or 8”, measuring from the outside of one strip to the outside of the other one.)
• Sew around the top twice, making one row of stitches close to the raw edges of the folded edge you pressed and one row close to the top of the bag. If desired, you can sew an X over the webbing between your two rows of stitching for extra strength.

We can sell you a kit to make this bag. It can save on materials, since you just pay for the actual amounts you need for the bag. And it will save a lot of time. Available in black, purple, or yellow.