Tea Towel Trick-or-Treat Bag

“Trick-or-Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!
Not too big, not too small, just the size of Montréal!”

I was out and about, browsing through Homesense, when I came across the fall linen section. Tea towels, runners, tablecloths, napkins and placemats overwhelmed me – beautiful colours, textures and patterns.

I found a package with two tea towels for $4.99 each. So I picked up two and decided to get creative!

Little Miss Fiona Mae has turned three, and what a great pressie for her, just in time for Halloween – a cute little DIY trick-or-treat bag!

Tea towels are nice to work with. Not only are they already cut to a perfect size, they are durable, and you can toss them in the wash.

I swear, this is a really easy project, even if it does involve sewing! I added a little extra, personalized details using felt, an embroidery hoop and a blanket stitch for Fiona.

Materials:

Package of Tea towels – two of the same size
Grosgrain Ribbon
Thread
Pins
Sewing Machine

Place tea towels one on top of the other, good sides facing in.

Pin along the seams to hold everything in place. Leave about an inch to two inches from the top unpinned. You’ll need this to fold over each side and pin; this will create a clean hemmed opening. (note: if you have an extra long tea towel, measure accordingly and trim off a few inches from the top)

Stitch all the way around the three edges (use the original stitching from the tea towels as a guide), you’ll have a pillowcase looking item.

Stich the folded opening edges down – I used a zigzag stitch, this will actually show the wrong side of the stich when you fold the bag right-side out, however it will still look cute.

With the bag still wrong side out, trim off excess material, leave a quarter of an inch from your stitches. Trimming the excess material will ensure your bag isn’t lumpy in the corners when you flip it right side out.

Turn bag right side out, and use a pencil to poke the corners out into a point.

From here, you should have a perfectly hemmed sack.

Grab your Grosgrain Ribbon, and cut two strips of equal length – these will be your handles. Your handle length will depend on your preference, if you were making a bag for yourself, you could make long straps, and have it as an over the shoulder bag.

Pin and stitch the grosgrain on top of your bag. For this you’ll continue to use a zigzag stitch, along the edges in a square pattern, following by an X pattern through the middle.