Pumpkin Tote Bag Tutorial

How to make pumpkin tote bag for Halloween. A great sewing project for beginners!

We love thinking about simple tutorials that are fun but also easy for beginners to try them. One of those simple projects is creating your first tote bag!  

I remember making a tote bag for the first time and being so excited with the end result. We will use straight lines in almost the whole tutorial and some zig zag lines around the pumpkin eyes, mouth and nose so they stay in place. The fabric we'll use it's a cotton tablecloth fabric that is easy to find, easy to manipulate and easy sew, and also a suede fabric for the eyes, mouth and nose, although you can use felt or velvet for these details, any fabric that doesn't fray at the edges.

MATERIALS:

• Tablecloth cotton fabric

• Suede, velvet or felt fabric for the pumpkin eyes, mouth and nose

• Fabric scissors. Our fav are these here.

• Sewing machine. We use this one here for almost all our projects.

• Ruler and tailor chalk. We used a simple measuring tape and a pen. 

  Below you can find the video tutorial we shared in our Spanish youtube channel so you can have a better idea of each step. Let's make a tote bag this halloween!

HOW TO MAKE A PUMPKIN TOTE BAG FOR HALLOWEEN:

1. Cut two rectangles of about 40 x 30 cm using your tablecloth cotton fabric. Video MIN 0:18

2. Trace two small squares that are 5 x 5 cm on the corners of both of your 40 x 30 cm rectangles. Video MIN 0:27

3. OPTIONAL. Fold the fabric and cut two stripes of fabric of about 7 cm width and 80 cm length. When you unfold the fabric these stripes should be like 14 cm wide and 80 cm length. These stripes will create some curves or scallops on the sides of the bag like in the picture above. This step is totally optional. You can skip it and jump to step 4 if you want a simple tote bag without the sides. Video MIN 0:55

4. Trace some eyes, nose and mouth for the pumpkin face. You can trace them using tailors chalk or a simple pen making sure you get rid of all the ink when you cut them out 🎃 Video MIN 1:28

5. Pin the eyes, nose and mouth to your cotton tablecloth fabric squares and start sewing them using a zig zag stitch. Video MIN 2:15

6. Start assembling your tote bag by creating the hem at the top of your tote bag first. Video MIN 2:35

7. Create the handles of the tote bag using strips of fabric like you can see in the video above MIN 3:00.

These strips of fabric are around 4 cm wide and 68 cm long. Just make sure you pin them to your tote bag before sewing them to see if you like the length. Add more fabric or cut more fabric until you are happy with the result.

8. Add the scallops or curves to your tote bag by folding them to create that curve on the side. This is again, an optional step. To give you a better idea of how to add that detail on the sides check out the video MIN 4:24

9. It’s time to finish and close your tote bag by sewing the sides and folding the bottom of the tote bag and sewing it together. Video MIN 5:40

Your pumpkin tote bag for Halloween is ready! and now you have a fun tote bag to show off this HALLOWEEN 👻

More Halloween Crafts here:

More Sewing projects here: