These fun Halloween Trick-or-Treat bags can be created in under an hour and they never come out the same way twice! Each character created will be unique so your kids will have a one-of-a-kind bag that can be reused year after year.
What You’ll Need:
- Wonder Under fusible web (7″ x 11″: piece)
- Scissors
- Large scraps of fabric in colors of your child’s choice
- Fabric bag (available at most craft shops such as Michael’s or JoAnn’s)
- Iron & ironing board
- Monster template pattern to trace (or any other character or animal)
- Small buttons for eyes
- Pencil
- *Thin-tipped fabric markers (Optional)
- *Black puffy or slick bottled paints (Optional)
All of these supplies can be purchase at a local fabric or stores. However, you’ll have the best luck finding the Wonder Under and fabric at an actual fabric store. Before you shop, ask a quilter friend if they have some of these supplies lying around!
1. Take the Lay the Wonder Under rough-side-down (slick side up) on top of the template pattern and have your child trace the pattern with a pencil. Trace appendages and extra parts of the monster (such as legs and arms) separately. This is so you can make them out of different fabrics.
2. Cut away any excess Wonder Under that’s around the body tracing so you don’t stick unnecessary fabric (wastes otherwise usable pieces that could be used for another time).
3. Now your child needs to choose a fabric for the body. You or another adult should handle the next part (and everything that has to do with the iron). The fabric should be larger than the traced pattern. If you do it the opposite way (the Wonder Under is larger than the fabric) it’s going to leave a mess on your iron!
4. Iron the traced piece of Wonder Under onto the wrong side (don’t let the picture below fool you) of the fabric by “pressing” down onto the body, rather than “ironing” on the piece. Hold it there for a few seconds and repeat. Set the body piece aside for a minute so that it cools before your child touches it again.
5. Have your child trace the rest of the pieces onto Wonder Under and repeat the process until everything they’d like on their Halloween bag is traced and ironed onto fabric.
6. Next, they can cut the pieces out of the fabric following the traced lines.
7. Have them peel the paper backing off of the cut out pieces and lay them onto the bag it whatever way they would like. Don’t worry about things like matching & symmetry — these are silly monsters & uniqueness is part of their charm!
8. Carefully pick up the bag with all of the pieces placed, and carry it to the ironing board. You or another adult can place the iron on top of the pieces to adhere them to the bag. Remember, don’t “push and pull” as you would when you’re ironing a shirt. Pick up the iron and place it onto the spot that need to be adhered. Be sure to hold it down for a few second to let it melt the web.
9. The bag is basically ready to use minutes after the ironing is complete. But usually the kids like to glue colorful button eyes onto their bag to add give a 3 dimensional element. Otherwise, they cut out little eyes with the Wonder Under and iron them onto their monster.
Additional options: Let your kids use thin-tipped fabric markers to write a message (Happy Halloween! or Boo!) or their names on their bags. And if you have a steady hand, use puffy or slick paints along the edges of the design. This step can really make the character “pop out”. Fair warning, unless you’ve practiced with bottled paints a lot, it’s very east to get the paint in all the wrong places (like all over the fun fabrics). So, I always suggest having a parent or older child attempt this last and optional embellishment.
Awesome tutorial, Chris! I could even do this one, and I’m craft challenged sometimes.
LOL ~ I don’t believe that, Deborah! But I’m thrilled that the directions seem clear. 😀