Our two oldest girls and I have just started to do some hand sewing using felt. It is a great material for beginners to use! We have been using My First Sewing Book: Hand Sewing by Winky Cherry, which I highly recommend, to learn basic hand sewing techniques and to learn to make some felt stuffed animals.
So, when I came across a post at Sewing School about these cute felt Easter bags, I immediately knew that it would have to be our next project. The original idea for the bags comes from a book by Kata Golda called Hand Stitched Felt. I am thinking if the projects in the book are similar to this one, we will have to go invest in it!
The girls absolutely loved the process and the end product turned out great as well! Take a peek! In the pictures, you will see four bags. Our kindergartner sewed one for herself. I made a bag for our toddler. Our oldest daughter (a second grader) made a bag for herself AND one for her preschool aged brother. These were fun and easy for beginners to complete and take pride in!
We did decide to make a lamb finger puppet instead of the bunny puppet. (That is just our family’s preference, as we tend to focus on Christ, His sacrifice, and the Resurrection around Easter time instead of the ‘Easter bunny’.) We encouraged the girls to recite memory verses with their ‘lamb of God’ finger puppets. Also, one chose to use her bag at Good Friday services to hold a small Bible. The other decided to use her bag to hold some crayons and paper.
We just had the picture from Sewing School to go by, so I had to come up with measurements, etc. on my own. It wasn’t too difficult to do.
For the Easter bag:
Fold a 9 by 12 inch piece of felt in half, placing the folded edge at the bottom. Cut a two inch strip from one side. (This strip can be used as one the handles.) From a coordinating color, cut a pocket shape and another 2 by 12 inch strip (for the second handle). Pin the pocket onto the piece to be used for the bag. Sew. Pin the side edges of your bag, with the pocket now on the inside. Sew. Flip the bag inside out so that your pocket is now on the outside. Fold your two 2 by 12 inch strips lengthwise and pin. Sew. Pin the newly formed handles to the outside of your bag. Make several X stitches to firmly secure the handles to the bag.
For the lamb finger puppet:
Cut two 3 inch by 3 5/8 inch pieces of white felt. Also cut a small tail and a shape as seen below for the ears. Cut a small oval face shape from light pink, tan, peach, or gray felt. Sew the tail to one of the white rectangles. Sew the face to the other white rectangle. Sew the mouth, nose, and eyes onto the face (or draw with permanent marker). Insert the ear piece at the top, between the two pieces of rectangular felt. Pin to secure. Sew around the edges of the rectangle pieces, leaving an opening at the very bottom. Voila! A lamb finger puppet to make a home inside the pocket of your Easter bag!
