How to make Felt Christmas Gift Bags

I'm on a bit of a roll with making Christmas craft at the moment, and with the shops Mega Christmas Workshop coming up, I wanted to design a quick to make gift bag. The result is a pretty and versatile Felt Bag.

You will need the following:

1 x strip of red felt 21" x 8" (although this can be anywhere between 6" - 10" depending on how high you want your bag to be)
1 x circle 7" diameter of red felt
1 x strip of white felt around 4" x 25"
1 x button
1 x 4" length of fine ribbon (red)
1 pack of Silver Hot Ribbon Art
Spool of metallic variegated thread
Red construction thread
Fusible webbing
Hot Fix Crystals
Hot Fix Crystal applicator
Sewing Machine
Open Toe Foot
1/4 Foot
AccuQuilt Go Fabric Cutter (or cut circles using a compass and scissors)
AccuQuilt Die # 55012
Chalk Marker
Iron

Begin by threading your machine with Decorative metallic thread (bobbin fill works best in the bobbin), and using an assortment of decorative sewing machine stitches sew in rows down the length of white felt.  You need to make sure that the entire strip is covered with decorative stitches.

Iron Fusible web to the wrong side of the white felt strip.

Use your Go! cutter and the 2" and 3" circle's on the die, cut three small and three large circles from the decorated white strip.  Cut just one layer at a time, because the felt is thicker than normal fabric.

If you don't have a Go! (and you really should), then go ahead and just use a compass to draw out the circles onto the felt, then cut them out using scissors.

Use a chalk maker to rule grid lines on the 21" x 8" strip of red felt.  I used a 3" grid.  This will simply allow you to place your decorated circles evenly.

Cut lengths of the Hot Ribbon Art ribbon to make the strings for the baubles.

Use a hot iron to fuse the Ribbon and the baubles into position.

If you find that the baubles want to lift off the felt (mine did) just use a couple of pins to help hold the baubles into position.  It is more important that the ribbon fuses since this will not be sewn.

Choose a blanket stitch on your machine.  I used a simple one that didn't sew back on itself, because I didn't want an issue with my metallic thread.

Put the open toe foot onto your machine, and stitch around the edge of the bauble to hold them into position.  Because my felt was fairly thick I didn't need to use a stabiliser, but if you are using thinner fabric you may need to put a tear away stabiliser under your work to allow it to feed smoothly through the machine.

Re thread the machine with a red construction thread.  With right sides together, fold the red felt strip in half, bringing the two 8" sides together.  Sew a 1/4" seam to form the body of the bag.

Pin the base of the bag, making sure that the right sides are together (this will place the seam inside the bag).  Use a 1/4" seam and sew the base into position.  Here's a hit, sew with the circular base under the sides, this will make it easier to machine smoothly.

Use the machine to stitch a loop of ribbon to form the closure, and hand stitch the button into position.

Now have some fun and add some bling to the bag, with Hot Fix Crystals!

All done!

I will be teaching this bag during the Christmas Mega Workshop at Ringwood Sewing Centre, where I will have some other variations including a cute santa, reindeers & sleigh and more.