Designing and Making a Santa Sack

I've made santa sacks for all my grandchildren so when my newest granddaughter Ruby came along this year, it was only fair to make her one too. As we are mid way through October already, I realized I shouldn't hold off any longer so grabbed some paper and began. My daughter only had one main simulation and that was too keep with the theme of her bedroom which was Boho rainbows adding a touch of red to represent her name.... and of course, to keep it unique, I designed and drew my own.

So the basis of the design was drawn and some fabrics selected...

I used fusible webbing to create the applique shapes and adjusted these as needed while cutting each shape out.

Since I was using fusible webbing to attach the pieces, they all needed to be reversed. Where this didn't matter too much with the rainbow, it certainly did for her name.

My thoughts were to make a pocket sack to cover one end of the rainbow and a cloud to cover the other....

....and add a tie made out of fabric for the pocket.

With everything now cut out, it was time to begin pressing it all in place. I started with inner ray of the rainbow working outward....

....however as I worked, I decided the tie for the sack was too bulky and the sack itself was too small so changes were made before I finished these off.

Now it was time to grab some threads to match the fabrics - sometimes this is more difficult than selecting fabrics but fortunately I have a lot to choose from. I like to unravel the thread slightly to get a better idea of the color over the fabric.

I decided to use blanket stitch for this stitching - it really suits the Boho theme, but before I start, I will add a thin layer of batting with backing fabric behind it. This makes for a sturdier sack.

Once again, I start with the smallest ray of the rainbow.

Note: I do my applique stitching through all layers so it is important to have a backing fabric so the fibers of the batting don't get pushed down into the machine. 

A quick look on the back reveals an interesting pattern as I used plain white for a backing fabric. I could consider not covering this. We'll see how that goes. 

I added free-motion swirls to the lollipop and an organza ribbon to the sack before continuing on with her name.

That's much less bulky than the fabric tie! 

Now that I've finished the stitching, I can go ahead and make the sack. I created an inner sack to cover the batting and decided that I'd leave the backside of the blanket stitching visible. This did make it a little trickier to stitch but it wasn't too difficult. I sewed the side seams of the sack and once that was completed, I added a boxed bottom on both sections.

The boxed bottom will help the sack stand up especially after Santa has left his parcels!

The inner sack stays reversed with the right side in, and then pushed inside the main sack, then both sections are stitched together around the top. The seam allowance is neatened. In this case, I had a little extra fabric so I used this to cover the seam otherwise a simple overlock or zigzag can be used. I do this because part of the seam is visible at the end.

To finish off, I make a wide opened binding - about 3" wide. This is left open at both ends (on one side of the sack) so a tie can be added to close the sack.

Alternatively, I could add another piece of fabric just below and thread a cord through there. Either way works.

My santa sacks are unique so I don't make patterns for them, but Jennifer has a number of patterns if you want to make one too - each pattern has 2 designs. Check them out by clicking the image below!