Carrot in Basket
This carrot candy bag is absolutely adorable. Rarely have I seen anything so cute. The candy bags are the perfect size for adding to an Easter basket or to gift on their own. I love how I can personalize these with different designs from designer, to classic, to rustic. Finally, one of our favorite things is that these candy bags are a wonderful use of your fabric scraps and remnants.
Carrot Bag Supplies
Supplies:
Fabric – two 5 inch squares and two 5 inch x 7 inch rectangles (2 for the greens, 2 for the carrot)
Carrot Bag Fabric
Begin by cutting your fabric. Cut two 5 inch squares for the greenery leaf topping. Cut two 5 x 7 inch rectangles for the carrots. Do an additional diagonal cut on the carrot to make the point. Do this by folding the rectangle in half and then drop 1 inch down and cut at an angle to the far side of the diagonal. Do not cut the side with the fold, cut the edge.
This cut should create your carrot shape when you unfold it. Iron all your pieces. Fold the green squares in half with right sides together and prepare to sew.
The first step when you begin sewing is to begin by placing the correct sides of the orange carrot together and sew down the side from the top straight down the side. We are not sewing the carrot angle, just the 1″ side and continue down the side until your run out of fabric.
Set the carrot aside and let’s prepare our green carrot tops. We sew the carrot tops by hemming the side of each of the green pieces. Then fold the tops in half and finger press them.
Lay the sewn carrot pieces open with the correct side up. Lay the green tops with the folded edge pointed towards the bottom and all of the unsewn edges together. Make sure the green carrot top edges are abutted against the sewn carrot piece seam and that the unsewn orange edges extend past the green carrot tops on each side. Sew each top to the carrots at the rough edges.
Finger press or iron the seams down towards the orange carrot section and topstitch a 1/4 inch seam along the top of your orange fabric if you choose. The topstitch is a cute detail that we love but it also holds the fabric down so the edge does not pop up where it is not wanted.
Now it is time to sew our drawstring channel. This is done by knowing the size of your cording or ribbon and also the size of the safety pin you will use to feed through the channel and sewing a seam a “smidge” bigger than the channel needed. We usually do 1/4 – 1/2 inch.
We are almost done sewing. Now, we just need to lay our carrots/tops with the right side of the fabric together and then sew the “V” of our carrot. I begin at the short side near the greenery that has not been sewn yet. Now you see that this edge is the only tricky part. You need to sew it as close to the green as possible without actually sewing the green. I do this by placing my fabric under my presser foot and then using the knob on the side of my machine gently put my needle into the fabric so I have an exact placement before I start sewing. If my needle is off I adjust a little before I start to sew.
Then, just sew straight down that side as we did with the first side. Now place your fabric at the top of the “V” section and sew down one angled side and back up the other. I backstitch a couple times at the tip so that I have a strong seam there when I am turning my fabric and pulling our the tip of the carrot.
The last step is feeding your ribbon or cording through your channels to create your drawstrings. We need to cut two lengths of ribbon that are a little more than double the width of your bag. Approximately 16 inches is what we did.
Then, using a safety pin feed both pieces of ribbon through one of your channels. The next step is to take 1 end of the ribbon and feed it back through the other channel. Tug on the ribbons to make them even and to ensure you are holding the two ends of the same piece of ribbon together and then tie them in a little knot.
Now, run the second piece of ribbon through the second channel going the opposite direction and when you tie it on the other end you can pull the ribbons or cording and it creates a perfect drawstring bag.
VIOLA, the most adorable and perfect little carrot candy bag to place in Easter Baskets, care packages, spring or fall harvest centerpieces, or any number of other fun events and home décor.
Seriously, I am addicted to these adorable bags. Once you’ve made one I know you will blink and wonder how all of a sudden a dozen showed up in your workspace.