March 30, 2018

DIY Kids Bunny Bag for Easter

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In honor of Easter Sunday being this weekend, I thought I would share how I made this adorable Bunny Bag for my niece. I’ve been learning how to sew over the last year and this seemed like it wouldn’t be too hard to create. So far making cute bags has been my main focus. If you’re not an avid seamstress, don’t worry neither am I. Any one can make this bag!

Before you get started you will need to decide what two colors you want to use and have at least a yard of each. A few things that I’ve found that make sewing easier are that mat, rotary blade and clear ruler. The first few times I attempted sewing I would hand cut the material and I always ended up cutting a little crooked. No matter how hard I concentrated, using this system makes it so much easier and quicker to cut all your pieces. I also use this Singer sewing machine and it’s so user-friendly and easy to use. If you are looking to start learning to sew, I highly recommend you start with this machine. Another important thing to have in sewing is an iron and ironing board. It’s literally the only time I use an iron in our house, and I didn’t even want to use it for this, but it really does help.

The first step you want to do is cut all of your pieces out of the materials of your choosing. You’re bunny can be any color you choose. I already had this beige material in my scrap pile of left overs and it was perfect. I used pink since it was for my niece, but you could also do blue, purple or any pastel color would work great. What’s great about this is that you can make the dimensions of your bag as large or small as you want. The following were the dimensions of my bag.

You’re going to need four bag panels, two will be the outside of your bag and two will be the inside. I choose to cut my inside panels out of my pink fabric. I like having contrasting colors on the inside of bags. The Bunny ears I free-handed the first one using a disappearing ink material pen, then I used that one as the template for my other 3 panels. You’ll want four total ears, two will be the same color as the outside of your bag, and two will be pink (or whatever color you choose). You only need to cut out one handle and four bunny ears. Two bunny ears will be the same fabric as your bag panels and two will be whatever pastel color you choose. Your bunny ears can also be as wide or skinny as you’d like, just make sure they are tall enough. I made mine 7 inches tall.

Once you have all your pieces cut out, we are going to start with making the handle. You will want to take your 4 in x 22 in piece and fold it in half long wise. Next iron the crease real good so you can see it when you open the piece up. Next you will fold both sides into the center and iron each new crease, the final step is to fold in half again and iron all sides. You will be left with a 1 in x22 in handle. Pin the open edge in a few places to keep it together while you sew.

** Ignore that brown spot near the iron. I accidentally left the iron laying face down a little too long a few weeks ago! Oops!

Now we move over to the sewing machine and sew the edge on each side of our handle. I usually line it up with the end of the pedal foot and that makes it just the right length away from the edge. Sewing the handle serves two purposes, it keeps it together so it doesn’t come open and it makes it look cleaner and nicer. Make sure you remove the pins as you go so you don’t risk you needle hitting them. I’ve forgotten and had that happen a few times and you’re running the risk of bending your needle or even breaking it. Once you have sewn both sides you can set the handle aside and move on to your bunny ears.

You’ll want to lay on pink ear on top of one white ear and stick a few pins around the edge to keep them together. Moving over to the sewing machine, you want to sew the edges of your ears together leaving the bottoms open. Leaving the bottom open let’s you flip the ears easily and they will be sewn into the edge of your bag later so it’s O.K. to leave them open. When flipping them you can use the end of your scissors very carefully to make sure the point of the ears are flipped all the way. I’ve also used a knitting needle or a chop stick, but not everyone will have either of those on hand. I ironed the ears after flipping because it helps them keep their shape and look nice and crisp. It’s not easy to get your sewing line the same on each ear, but don’t stress about it, it will add character to your bunny. When you finish your ears set them aside with your handle while you move on to the bag and liner.

To create your bag and liner, you will want to lay your two pink panels together and pin around 3 sides, and then do the same with your white panels. We are only going to sew three side in this step. The open ends will be sewn together in the next couple steps. You’re panels should now look like this:

Go ahead and sew up the three sides of your while bag, but when you get to the pink liner we’re going to leave an opening on the bottom. This is how we will flip the bag in a later step. I marked my bag with my fabric marker to remind me to leave the opening. I’ve forgotten to leave the opening before and it’s not a big deal, but it is a pain having to rip the stitches out. Leave about a 2 inch opening and you will be good to go when we get to flipping the bag a little later. You can see my marks in the picture below.

Tip: When sewing around corners, you do not need to stop and start in the new direction. You can sew right around the corner. Just make sure that your needle is down and lift the sewing foot and turn your material. Lower the sewing foot and continue in your new direction.

Needle down, pedal up and turn material.

Now that you have sewn you panels together it’s time assemble you bag. First you need to flip the outer bag (white) right side out and iron the seams flat. You are now going to place your outer bag inside of the liner (pink) bag. Do not flip the liner (pink) bag. Once you have the bags inside each other you will want to line up the seam and flatten out the seems so that they are not all flipped to the same side. That will make it too bulky and could make it hard to sew. Make sure you pin the seams flat once you get them together.

Now we just need  to add in out handle and ears. If you want your ears to be folded over you will need to fold them however you want and then iron the seams to help them stay while you place them into the bag seams.

We’ve now reached the trickiest part of this project. We need to add the handle and ears to our bag and pin them in place. You want to take you handle and add it in between the two layer on the side seems and pin them into place. Now take you ears and place them one sides, doesn’t matter which one, but you do want to make sure the pink side of your ears are facing the pink side of your bag. Pay care attention that they are facing the proper direction or once you flip your bag, your bunnies ears will be backwards. Add a few pins around the edges and you are now ready to sew the top seem of your bag.

Sewing fabric in a circle like this can be tricky. I’ve found that if you remove the from piece from your sewing machine it makes it much easier to insert the fabric around the bottom of the sewing machine and turn in a circular motion to sew your top seam. Go ahead and sew around the top of your bag.

Once you have finished sewing the top seam you are ready to flip your bag inside out through the opening we left in the liner. It’s a little trick flipping a back sometimes so don’t be afraid to pull at it. It’s sturdier than you think and it will be fine. It will probably look like a huge messy lump of fabric while you work of flipping it around. I remember on my first bag thinking “this is a hot mess, there’s no way this will look good.” I was wrong it look great and so will your bunny. You can see what I mean below, the left is during flipping and the right is after getting everything flipped.

There’s just two last steps from here. We need to close up that opening in the liner we just used to flip our bag. For that you just need to iron the seem flat and stitch the opening as close to the edge as you can. If you want you can change the thread to try and match the color of your liner, but it’s not a big deal either way since it will be in the bottom of the inside and no one will see it. I left my thread white and I barely even noticed.

The last step I did was to sew a seam around the top edge of my bag. I ironed the seam nice and flat and then sewed a quarter inch seam around the top. This helps your bag stay folded properly and it also helps keep the bunny ears up.

You’re bunny bag is now complete! It’s ready to go as is or you can choose to add the bunny face or a name to personalize for the person you are giving it too. If you are good at drawing you could free hand the nose, eyes, and whiskers. I’m not so I used my Cricut machine. I’ve said how much I love my Cricut and it never seems to disappoint. I used it to make the stencil of the bunny face and my niece’s name using freezer paper. I use freezer paper because the wax side when ironed on sticks to material making it easy to paint over it. I will have to do a tutorial on that soon.

After adding the face my bag looked like this!

It’s so cute and perfect for collecting all those goodies from the Easter Bunny! I think my niece like it too as I got these pictures after I sent it to her!

If you make a bunny bag be sure to let me know below in the comments! I’d love it if you sent me picture of your projects too, you can email me at katie@laughalittlelouder.com

I’ve been working on some other projects too and will hopefully have some more tutorials to share soon. Make sure you join my email list over there on the right so I can be sure to let you know when I add new stuff.

Hope you have a Happy Easter Weekend with your family and friends!

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