Cutie Pie Gift Bags

Howdy! I’m Wendi and I teach sewing and embroidery to beginners of all ages at Shiny Happy World. I make things that are whimsical, colorful and happy – and you can too!

Cutie Pie Gift Bags
Use these to wrap small gifts, or make up a whole batch of them and use as special party favor bags.

Materials needed for each bag:
- 1 rectangle skin-colored fabric 4 x 7 inches (10 x 18cm)
- 2 rectangles hair-colored fabric 5 1/2 x 7 inches (14 x 18cm) and 9 x 7 inches (23 x 18cm)
- 1 piece of ribbon 24 inches (61cm) long
- embroidery floss for face (I use DMC #3371)
- embroidery floss to match the hair fabric
- Thread

Tools needed:
- sewing machine
- embroidery needle
- pins
- marking tools for transferring embroidery pattern
- pinking shears

Time needed: about 1 hour for each bag
Download embroidery pattern pdf here

1. Transfer the embroidery pattern (how to transfer tute) to the face fabric and stitch. I used 4 strands of floss, backstitch for the face and splitstitch for the hair. You could dramatically reduce the amount of time this project takes by drawing on the face and hair with fabric markers, but I really like to embroider. If you use fabric markers, stabilize the fabric first with some freezer paper – it will make it MUCH easier to draw on.

2. Sew the smaller hair rectangle to the top of the face using 1/4 inch seam allowance. Press the seam allowance toward the darker fabric. You’ve finished the front of the bag!

3. Fold the ribbon in half and pin it to one of the side seams, three inches down from the top. Pin the larger hair rectangle to the front of the bag, right sides together and with the ribbon sandwiched between the layers. Stitch around the sides and the bottom of the bag using 1/4 inch seam allowance. Leave the top open.
4. Box in the corners of the bag. Flatten each side of the bag sideways so that the bottom corner becomes a point with the side seam running up the center. Measure 1 inch from the tip of the side seam and draw a straight line perpendicular to the side seam, making a triangle. Stitch. It should look like this.
6. Turn the bag right side out. Use pinking shears to trim the top edge of the bag. Fill with candy or other small treats and tie closed.

7. Pat yourself on the back and make another – they’re so much fun! Experiment with different faces and hairstyles. It would be fun to make some silly monster faces too. Just remember that part of the face fabric rectangle will wrap under and around the sides of the bag – so use the original pattern as a guide for how big to draw the face and where to position it on the fabric.