Loot Bags

My seven-year-old daughter, Margaret, is eager to learn to sew. It’s hard to keep her out of my quilting fabrics.

I wanted to find a fairly simple, fun project for us to work on together. Then her birthday came along, and I struck on the idea of making loot bags for her party.

The usual ones she brings home from other kids’ parties are paper – or worse, plastic – that only lasts until it has been emptied. My thought was to make little fabric bags that could be used afterwards. Kids always love having something to tuck their treasures into – something that can hold Hot Wheels cars, Silly Bandz, Littlest Pet Shop pets, or a snack for the car. It could even be a sleeping bag for a Barbie doll or small stuffed animal.

Margaret’s party friends are mostly girls, so I began by purchasing some cheap and cheerful girly fabric (I wasn’t about to donate my quilting stash, thank you very much!). For each bag, she and I cut rectangles that were about 6” x 8”. I let her serge across the tops, then we put right sides together and she serged around the three sides and trimmed the threads.

You could take an few extra minutes and turn under the top hem and stitch, for a neater edge. I did that on the two sample bags I made for Margaret and her brother. But Margaret didn’t have the patience for that, so we just went with the serged edge.

While she serged, I found some contrasting scrap fabric, and made ties. I used fabric that was about 1” x 15”, folded it in half along the length, pressed and stitched. I then found the midpoint, and tacked the tie along the seam of the bag, about 1.5” from the top edge.

We decided that her brother and her boy cousin would not care much for Sunbonnet Sue print fabric, so we made a couple of boy loot bags. For her cousin, we used some leftover construction vehicle novelty fabric, and tucked a little truck into the bag along with the other loot.

For her brother, I cut plain red fabric (from an old pillow case) in one 6”x8” rectangle, and one 4.25”x8” rectangle. Then I sewed a 2.25”x8” scrap of paw print fabric to the smaller rectangle. Just that little bit of novelty fabric added some punch to the otherwise plain bag.

We used masking tape to label each bag with a guest’s name, and Margaret enclosed a small “Thanks for coming to my party” note in each bag. She is so excited about being able to give her friends something that she made herself!