I have a lot of young nieces and nephews and I was looking for a cute Easter present that would be fun and easy to make. I’ve been searching Pinterest and my other favorite sewing and craft blogs for a few months and finally decided on making fun bunny bags for Easter treats. However, for the boys, I wanted to do something with an Easter theme, but I needed a different motif than the pink and purple items available at this time of year, so I chose to go with two types of “camo” fabrics for the boy’s bags – one fabric for the bag itself and one fabric for the bunny ears. Changing up the fabrics is a great way to personalize the gift further. For my mom, who loves lavender, I made lavender bags because I knew she would love these as much as I do!
These bags were easy to make and, once the fabric is cut, only take about 20 minutes to put together. Once I did a few, I was able to get the time down to about 10 minutes for the finished product, so it is definitely doable to create a dozen or so in an afternoon sewing session.
The material part was super easy – I bought pre-cut “fat quarters” at my local Joanne Fabric which are easy to pick up and very inexpensive. I made three bags for each fat quarter.
The sizing was the hardest part for me – I wanted the bags to be small enough to fit easily with other items in their Easter baskets, but big enough to hold a good amount of treats. I tried the 4”x4” first and found those to be a little too small. I settled on a 4” x 6” size, which seems about perfect and holds a couple of non-candy treats (I chose playdoh for some as we have food allergies in the family) and is easy to tuck into a larger basket. The patterns I modified are listed in the Helpful Hints section below.
You will need:
Fat quarter fabric (one or two, depending on if you want a contrasting or complementary fabric for the ears) For each bunny bag, you will need 2 – 4.5” x 6.5” squares and two 5”x5” squares.
White ribbon (16” for each bag)
Matching thread
The Bunny Bag Process:
- Unfold and iron the fabric.
- Cut two 4.5”x 6.5” pieces out for the bag and two 5”x5” pieces for the ears. On the 5”x5” square, draw two bunny ears onto the wrong side of the fabric. I chose to use a complementary fabric for the bunny ears. Don’t cut these until the next steps.
Fabric Squares
- Pin the bunny ear sections together with the right sides facing and sew a straight stitch along the bunny ear tracing. Carefully cut the ears out leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Turn the bunny ears right side out.
Bunny Ear Tracing
- For the bag, with the wrong side facing you, for each 4.5”x6.5” square, fold down the top (4.5” side) ½” and then another ½ inch to make the casing for the ribbon and pin. Sew the casing at the bottom of the seam for one square, but leave the other until after the next step.
- Place the bunny ears on the second 4.5”x6.5” square at the top and sew the second casing.
- Pin the bag sections right sides together and, starting at just below the ½” casing created in steps 4-5, sew using a 1/4″ seam allowance along the first side, bottom, and up the other side, stopping before the casing and using a straight stitch and matching thread.
- Turn the bag right side out. Thread about 8” of white ribbon through the front and back casings at the top. I pin the ribbon to a small safety pin and use it to push the ribbon through.
- Fill the bag, tie the ribbon and you are all done!
Helpful hints:
Before I settled on this approach, I researched the following sites before deciding on my final pattern. For this pattern, I did not use a lining, since these will probably be used only once. I modified the pattern to make it easier to complete. I also switched up how I did the ribbon – for some I used two separate pieces and tied at the sides and for others, I used one ribbon and tied it on one side.
I bought my supplies at Joann Fabric, or you could get them from an online store such as Fabric.com – the exact pieces are listed here:
Fabric quarters – 1 large print camo, 1 all green camo.
White 1/4″ Ribbon
What do you think? Have you tried to make these before? Or, will you put it on your project list for the future? Let me know in the comments below – I’d love to hear about your project!
