Halloween Trick or Treat Bag Pattern

September 29, 2012

I have memories of growing up carrying a plastic, orange jack o’ lantern bucket to collect my trick or treat candy. When our girls were old enough to go out and collect up candy from our neighbors, they were into everything pink and glittery. So, naturally, they had pink, glittery princess buckets to carry on Halloween. The sad part about the buckets were they would spontaneously open at the bottom and each year someone would wind up with all their candy in the street. This year, the poorly made princess bucket are out of here because I made them some new trick or treating bags.

They are fully lined and are the perfect size for holding gobs of candy.

I have three styles available since it’s more fun to have choices in life.

The trick or treat bag is quick and easy to make.

You can use crayons to color in the images, so it’s easy to customize too. If you feel like going above and beyond, you can also applique the design on the bag, but for this tutorial, I simply colored the pictures. I’m loving quick and easy these days.

The hardest part about making these candy carrying bags is deciding which one is your favorite. The finished bag measures 12 x 10.5 x 3.5

Ready to sew a trick or treat bag? See my tutorial below.

Halloween Trick or Treat Bag

Materials Needed:

Neutral fabric (I used a linen type fabric for these bags) measuring 28 x 15 inches

Lining fabric measuring 28 x 15 inches. If you have fabric with a distinct directional pattern, cut two pieces measuring 15 x 15 inches.

2 1 inch straps measuring 17 inches in length

Black Sharpie marker or fabric markers and crayons

Now comes the fun part.

1. Choose which design you like best for the front of the trick or treat bag. Click on the link below to print the design you want. It will open the .pdf to print the image. Be sure the Auto-Rotate and Center check box is not checked before you print.

Got Candy?

Witch Way to the Candy?

Who Wants Candy?

2. Tape the printed image to a window and align your exterior fabric over it. I find this to be the easiest method of transferring the design to the fabric. Align the top of the paper with the top edge of the fabric (ignore the position in the photo below). Be sure to center the paper at the top of the fabric. Also, transfer the small marks along the top to help you place the straps later.

3. Use a Sharpie or fabric markers to transfer the design to your fabric. Regular Sharpie markers don’t always make the best idea for transferring designs to fabric because they can fade if you wash the item often, but I figured that since this was a bag we would drag out once a year, Sharpies work great. After you take down the fabric use crayons to add some color to the design.

4. If you are using a lining fabric that has a print that goes one direction, cut your fabric into 2 squares measuring 15×15 inches. Place the fabric with the right sides together and stitch them together along the bottom using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Use pinking shears to trim the edge and iron the seam open. If you don’t have pinking shears, just give it a good zigzag along the edge to keep it from fraying.

By sewing these together this way, the print is right side up on both sides when you look into the bag. You can see below how this isn’t necessary if you have an all over print like the candy corn, but makes a huge difference for the other two prints.

5. Place the right sides of the outer fabric together and stitch down each side, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Trim with pinking shears. Repeat with the lining fabric.

6. Place the straps on the outside of the outer fabric. Place them with the ends of the strap aligned with the top edge of the fabric and stitc close to the edge. Repeat for each side. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but you can see below for the placement.

7. Fold the lower corners of the bag to form a triangle. Stitch 1.75 inches from the point. This will form the width of the bag. Do the same on the lining fabric.

8. Turn the outer fabric right side out. Slide it into the lining fabric (leave it with the wrong side out. The handles should be sandwiched between the layers. Line up the top edge of the fabric.

9. Stitch along the top edge using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Leave an opening between one set of handles so you can turn the bag when you are finished. I marked the stitching and opening in red below since it’s hard to see the stitching.