Valentine's Day Felt Bags

Happy February!  Time to get ready for Valentine's Day.  :)  

Thanks to my mom for showing me how to make these cute and easy bags.  And for helping me to actually be motivated to make something during my month of not wanting to do anything.

Mom showed me how to make these Valentine's Day Goody Bags she's going to give to the ladies in her book club.  (Lucky!  The bags are going to be filled with all kinds of Valentine's Day goodness.  They go all out for this book club.)

(I don't know how much felt you need--you'll have to estimate.  Sorry.)

First, cut out your felt as shown above.  So you know, the 24" x 2 1/2" strip will be about 1 1/4" long--I figure it's easier to have it a little long and then trim off the extra.  

We will start with the handles.  They're so easy.  Just fold the 1 1/2" x 12" felt strips in half as shown, and sew really close to the edge of the felt (1/8" or so).  That's it--since felt doesn't fray, we don't even have to turn them inside-out.  Sweet.  Do that for both handles.

Now get the front of your bag (one of the  7 1/2" x 8 1/2" pieces) and place one end of your first handle where you want it on your bag.  Pin in place.

Fold the bag front over and match the other side of the handle.  Pin it, too.

Like so.

Now take the back of your bag (the other  7 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece, of course) and pin the other handle on it, using the front as a guide.

Sew two lines to secure the handles onto the bag.  You'll want to go back and forth a few times for strength.

If you are going to add a decoration to the front of the bag, now's the time.  My mom used her embroidery machine to stitch a heart onto each bag, but you could also use appliqué, fabric paint, hand embroidery...

Next, we attach the side of the bag (the 24" x 2 1/2" piece) onto the front.  Match the edges, wrong sides together (so seams will be on the outside) and sew really close to the edge.  (Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end to lock in your stitches.)  Use the picture above to see how to do the corners.  {You could sew this right sides together, so the seams were on the inside, but then the corners would be rounded.  So it's just personal preference.}

See?  Some leftover felt.  But I'd rather have too much than too little.

 And here it is with the side attached and trimmed to size.

 Attach the back now.  (Okay, so we attached the back first, then the front.  The order doesn't matter.)  Notice how the finished corner looks.

 And now the bag is done!  It's a really fast project, and with different colors of felt, it could be adapted to any holiday or event.

Happy crafting!  And happy Month of Love!  I'm excited about all the Valentine's projects I'll be finding in blogland.  (Hopefully I can contribute a few fun ones; I have some ideas...)