Homemade Trick Or Treat Bags using my Glowing Eyes

Homemade Trick Or Treat Bags including my Glowing Eyes

from this previous post

 http://www.craftynightowls.blogspot.com/2012/10/fun-glowing-halloween-eyes.html

I have been laughing for the last 30 minutes loving these trick or treat bags. I LOVE THEM. I have put together a tutorial on how to make the bags. I don't have a template for the Witch, Bat , Owl and Skull yet, but I will add it later. Honestly I freehanded the designs and didn't have time to get that together with this post tonight. Finished dimension is 9"x11"x8" bag. I wanted it big and wide enough that it was easy to get candy in it. Plus the handles are designed so that the bat faces the person giving the candy. This is a great project to make sice you can use them year after year. The glowing eyes can be replaced or new batteries.

Update: Well, tonight was so much fun trick or treaing. These bags were the hit of the night. They worked great. I could see my older boys half way down the street because I could see the glowing eyes on their bags. It was easy to find them and keep track of them.  I recommend putting a cardboard piece on the bottom of the bags.....they sagged a little due to weight. I am soooo happy I made these for my kids to use year after year!

Supplies:

Felt in various colors to create your Bat, Witch, Ghost....whatever you want.

1~ pair of Glowing eyes (see previous post)

1~  18"x31" piece of Halloween print fabric ...tip: cut it on the fold

1~ 18"x31" piece Pellon~ Extra Heavy Stabilizer

1~ 1"x30" piece of Black felt for lining

2~  2"x15" piece of  Black Fabric for Handles... something sturdy

1~ 6"x5" piece black felt

2~ 1 1/2" pieces of velcro

Cut all your pieces of fabric Pin Pellon piece to Halloween fabric

 Pin your Felt design a few inches from the top center

Sew around edges of bat ( We'll just use Bat as our example piece in this tutorial). Cut out circles for just the pellon on the back. I simple put a eyeball on the back where I thought they would look good and traced around it and cut that out. Then I sewed around the eyes.

Fold your Halloween/pellon piece in half length wise with right sides together and sew both sides...NOT top. Do the same to the lining piece.

It should start to look like a bag

 Stick your hand inside the bag and get the corners to flatten out. Make sure your seam is centered.

 Now we need to mark the corners so we can get that box shape. We are still working with both our pieces wrong side out. It will be 4" from the tip or if you have a clear ruler 8" across....meaning the top left corner of the the first block to the top right corner of the 8th block. My pen is pointing to the 4th box on the ruler. Mark it with a pen or with pins. Do this to both sides and the lining

 Sew along line and cut corner off.

 Iron edges on bottom and along sides. I actually do it right side AND wrong side out. I really want it to keep a box shape.

 Get your 5"x6" felt piece and 2 velcro pieces. Make sure you have your lining and bag right side out. Place felt piece ontop of your Bat eyes so that the eye area is completely covered and even. Smoosh lining piece up to Bat face...like they are kissing and transfer the felt piece to the lining. You are pretty much trying to line up this flet flap to the bat eyes. Sew the bottom ONLY of the Flap felt piece to the lining.

Sew the Velcro pieces the the top left and right of the flap. I used the soft fuzzy side on the flap and the rougher piece on the liner.

 Get your 3" handles an d press them in half. Sew along both sides

The bag should be right side out.  I marked each corner with a pin. Have the front of the bag face you. You want to place your handle 1" to the center of the bag from the pin marking the top right. Then add the other end of the handle on the back side of the bag . Make sure your handle is not twisted. The handles are not placed traditionally placed since I want the from of the bag to face forward when the kids hold the bags of for treats. Pin the handles.

Place the bag inside the liner so that right sides are touching. Make sure you get your handle all the way sandwiched in and not hanging out. Start pining the seams together first so they match and then all the way around. You want to mark a 4" space where you will leave the seam open to turn it right side out.....make sure it is NOT an area with handles.  I always mark my 4" area with double pins.

Sew all around except 4" area and then turn it right side out. I always start with pulling the lining out and then the rest. I pull the entire lining straight up to get the seam spread a bit and then stuff it back in.

 Straighten the seam so that the black lining is inside the bag, then iron the entire way around the bag. Pin the 4" area so that it matches the rest and sew a zig zag stich all around the top.

Sew around the eye area again so that ALL layers are sewn together BUT make sure your felt flap is DOWN and not getting sewn shut. Take an Exacto knife and slice a * astric shape. Make sure you are not cutting into the other side of the bag or threw the felt flap.

Pop your Glowing eyes through each hole and turn them on. You then close the Felt flap and it is done!

Happy Halloween and be safe Trick Or Treating

Pirate Party Food

Here is a list of foods you can have at your Pirate Party.
Deadman Fingers – Bread or cookie dough shaped into fingers, add a sliver of almond for the nail and take a knife and make grooves for knuckles.

 Parrot Beaks – potatoe or orange wedges

 Parrot Legs – Chicken drumsticks Swimming with the Fishes snack mix – make chex cereal mix and dye it blue, then add goldfishes.

 Beware of Shark Punch – fill icecube trays with cranberry juice and gummi sharks, freeze. then on party night put lemon lime soda in beverage container and add icecubes. the icecubes will color your soda and once the sharks are loose they will float to the top.

 Long John Silver Peg Legs – chocolate covered pretzels (you will need the long straight pretzels) 

Squirmy Octopus’s – Hotdogs cut in half and then you cut legs in the bottoms, pop into a pot of boiling water so the legs will curl and then take them out and serve.

Cannonballs – chocolate malt balls or cheesy puffs

Goonie Dubloons – Chocolate coins with the silver or gold wrappers

Catch of the day – Gummi fish, gummi sharks and gummi octopus

One-Eyed Willies Rich Stuff – Candy Rings, Dubloons, Candy necklaces or any kind of candy jewelry

Flesh & Lard on a Bisquit – Meat & Cheese platter with crackers

Food for our Pampered Spa Party

We had so much fun designing and putting all of our thoughts and ideas that were on paper to life. It was a spa party so we figured other than the cupcakes we would try to keep it healthy and yummy. Our color chooses were: Yellow, Green and Orange so that we could incorporate the citrus fruits.

What spa party is great without chocolate covered strawberries. (be mindful though if you decide to make some of your own, that once you dip & cover the strawberries with chocolate they are only good for maybe 2 days top. so the closer to the party time or when you want to enjoy them the better </>

I used my circle glass dish and filled it with: orange slices, green grapes, yellow pineapple chunks and orange canteloupe rounds. Spear one with a toothpick and dip it in the fruit dip and you have a party in your tummy.

Cucumber slices. 1 cucumber peeled then sliced and 1 cucumber just sliced. Depending on people’s preference. Or to use on your eyes during your face mask.

Now we have a couple of my cute white ceramic mugs with carrot sticks, celery sticks and yellow bell pepper slices. we had a Lipton Onion dip for the veggies.

Time for dessert: we had yellow cupcakes with a fluffy frosting.

We made a homemade mint lemonade the night before and garnished our glasses with yellow, orange and green striped straws and orange, lemon and lime slices to make the straws.