Sew a Santa Sack with embroidery

Great ready for some magic and to sew a Santa Sack!

Sew a magic flat-bottom Santa Sack!

As you may know, this year has been a magical one for BERNINA with the release of the BERNINA 990 sewing machine. While I haven’t yet had a chance to try one, I certainly read about and watched many videos about it and its marvels.

To celebrate, I chose purples and blues from the themed release colours for the 990 to accent my project: sew a Santa Sack. This bit of holiday magic will be wonderful for holding gifts under the tree this holiday season.

If you would like a quick and easy fabric scraps project, there is a blog post with a free tutorial to sew a gift tag like the one you see in the image above. Click here: Sew a Gift Tag

Materials Needed:

Gather your main fabric, coordinate, embroidery thread and a drawstring or cord.

Sewing:

Sewing Machine with zig-zag stitches such as a BERNINA 590
Sewing machine foot: Reverse Pattern Foot #1D (for use with Dual Feed)
Quilting ruler or other ruler in inches
Cutting mat and rotary cutter, or scissors
Sewing clips and pins
1/4 yard coordinating midweight woven (ie. quilting fabric) for drawstring channels (2″ x 2.5″ x 17″)
3 yards cord or ribbon for drawstrings
1/2 yard mid to heavyweight woven fabric – I used natural cotton canvas in a medium-heavy weight

Embroidery:

Embroidery module which fits your machine
Large oval hoop
Embroidery foot
Embroidery thread
Embroidery stabilizer
Embroidery needle #12 or #14, depending on fabric weight
Embroidery design: I used this design here

Large oval hoop

The Large oval embroidery hoop is suitable for both design combinations and extensive embroidery designs. The template makes quick work of accurately positioning the project in the hoop.

Learn more

Cutting and Preparing the Santa Sack:

I used the measurements 44 x 18. Cut your fabric and zig-zag the edges with your sewing machine or use a serger to finish all of the fabric edges. I used a zigzag with a length of 2.0 and a width of 3.6

Embroidering the Santa Sack:

Attach the embroidery unit to your machine. I like to take out the manual and go step by step so that I don’t forget any important bits.

If you are new to embroidery, here is an article to give you some ideas to get you started. https://blog.bernina.com/en/2023/03/embroidery-with-a-sewing-machine/

Once you have decided on your design, select the correct hoop to fit your design. I used a snowman design that required the BERNINA Large Oval Hoop to fit my design.

Get your stabilizer and measure out approximately 2” bigger than your hoop. I used OESD Sticky Back Tearaway Stabilizer.

Because my canvas is very thick, I used the sticky stabilizer to allow me to “float” the canvas, so I didn’t need to force the heavy fabric into the hoop. Rather, it floats on top, held in place by the sticky stabilizer.

Load your embroidery design into your machine and stitch it out.

Making the Cord Channel:

Cut two strips of your coordinating fabric 2.5 x 17 inches. Press each long edge ½” to the back. This will be sewn on top of your sack to form the cord channel.

Take each short end of the channel and press to the wrong side. Topstitch closed. This will prevent fraying at the ends of the channel.

Measure down 5 inches from the top of the sack. Pin the channel into place on both the front and back of the right sides of the sack fabric. Stitch the long edges of the channels to each side of the bag.

Measure down 5″ from the top to attach the cord channel.

Sewing the Santa Sack with a Magic Flat Bottom:

Now comes the magic part! Lay out the sack with the wrong sides together. Take a ruler and turn back the top layer of the sack by 2 inches. Pin or clip into place. Flip over and repeat for the back panel. You should now have a fold that resembles a “W” shape.

Fold back the fabric 2″ up from the bottom fold.

Fold the other side back and clip the folds, ready to sew.

The wrong sides should be facing out for stitching.

Pin or clip the sack right sides together. Sew the side seams with a ¼ or ½ inch seam allowance, depending on your fabric and preferences. If you have something that is a looser weave and frays easily I would suggest at least ½”.

Turn the sack right side out to check that you have caught all of the layers. There should be a triangle shape which allows the flat bottom to form. Ta da – MAGIC!!

Triangle appears on each side of the bag, creating the magic flat bottom.

Finishing the Santa Sack:

Turn the top edge of the sack down ½” and then ½ ” again. This will create a hem which will enclose the raw edge. Topstitch.

Take your cording or ribbon and cut it into two equal pieces.

Use a bodkin or safety pin and thread one cord through the channel, with two ends dangling out at one side of the bag. Take the second piece of cord and thread it through the channels in the opposite direction. Tie the two ends of the cord together on each side so that it cannot pull out of the channel. It isn’t much fun to have to thread it through again!

Stuff the sack with gifts and treasures, pull the strings taut and place it under the tree, ready for giving on Christmas Day! If you want, you can sew a simple gift tag to attach to the Santa Sack.

Enjoy the “Magic” of the holiday season!