Hanukkah Craft #1 - Paper Gelt Pouch

I am so very excited that Hanukkah is late in the month this year because I have more time to have my decorations out. Also, it gives me more time after Thanksgiving to get ready! So, to begin with, here's a little project I've been working on using easy materials to make a fun Hanukkah treat for the kids: little dreidel and star gelt pouches!

I used old grocery bags and and drew my shapes onto the wrong sides, which is the outside of the bag, (I free handed the dreidel and star, but can always looks for a template online,) cut out two sheets, still wrong sides together, following my lines. I used the wrong sides because I wanted the blank inside of the bag to end up being what showed on my finished product!
I began to sew. Just a few things about sewing paper on a sewing machine: use a sharp needle, make your stitches longer than you would on fabric, and make sure to hold both pieces of paper together since the feed dogs won't pull the bottom layer of paper through. I left the candy out until I was about 3/4 of the way done with my stitching, then put it in and finished sewing.
The paper didn't stay completely in line, so I ended up trimming my edges. I might have used some decorative scissors just to make it a little prettier, but a friend's borrowing mine right now so I just left it straight.
I wrote the first letter of my kids names then traced it in glue and added glitter, just to fancy it up a little. I love embellishing! Go ahead, add buttons, ribbon, rick rack and anything else you want. The more the better!
And maybe the best thing about this is that if you don't sew, just use glue!!
Have fun getting ready for Hanukkah!



Thanks for the request, Amy! Happy to share my post with One Artsy Mama.