How to make a Santa sack: Tutorial to create a personalised Santa sack

Supported by Fabric Wholesale Direct

Santa sacks are a great alternative to stockings — especially if you don’t have a mantel or if you have larger gifts that just won’t fit into a stocking! 

Today, I’m sharing how I made this generously-sized Santa sack for Alexander using a festive plaid material from online store Fabric Wholesale Direct.

You only need basic sewing skills to create this Santa sack and I love the quality of it — it’s sure to last through his childhood.

Items you will need:

Items you will need to make Santa Sack
Items you will need to make Santa sack

Steps:

1. Decide on the size of your Santa sack. I made this one 75cm high by 50cm wide but you could make yours smaller if you prefer.

2. Fold over your outer fabric (plaid) from the base and cut to size — this will give you a front and back piece that’s connected at the bottom. Do the same for your lining fabric (felt).

Outer fabric and lining cut to size
Outer fabric and lining cut to size

3. Now it’s time to sew the outer fabric into a sleeve by facing the two good sides together and sewing along the left and right length. Turn the right way out (your seams should be hidden inside) and set aside.

Sew seams of sack
Sew along the left and right long edge, making sure the ‘good’ sides face each other

4. Sew your lining fabric by doing the same thing, sewing along the left and right length of your felt but do not turn out.

5. Now place your lining sleeve inside your outer sleeve. You should not be able to see any seams and your sack will look like it’s taking shape! 

Place your lining inside your sack
Place your lining inside your sack

6. Create a neat edge at the top of your sack by folding a 2cm seam of your plaid fabric over the felt lining. Iron it into place and use pins to secure before sewing around the top edge of your sack. 

Roll and sew neat edge along top
Roll plaid fabric over lining and sew to create a neat top edge

7. You’ve now created your basic sack and it’s time to add a draw string. There are many ways you could do this but I simply opted to cut a long piece of plaid fabric that I could sew onto my sack to create a tunnel to feed the string through. 

The fabric piece was 16cm wide by 1m long — this was wide enough for me to sew a 2cm seam allowance around all 4 sides. I pinned it into position (9cm down from the top of the sack) and sewed along the top and bottom edges all the way around the sack.

Create draw string
Add a piece of fabric around the sack to feed your draw string through

8. Feed your draw string through the tunnel you just created. I used a metallic twine of red, green and gold to pick up on the colour of the fabric but you could use any type of ribbon, thin rope, or even sew your own using leftover plaid fabric.

Tip: secure a safety pin to the end of your ribbon or tie a knot to help you feed it through the casing.

Feed cord through channel

9. You could stop here or if you want to create a personalised Santa sack, it’s time to create the name tag. Cut two pieces of red cotton fabric (or whatever colour you prefer) using this tag template and use your sewing machine to sew around the areas highlighted in green.

Santa sack tag template
Cut fabric for tag
Use our template to cut out a tag shape
Sew areas highlighted in green
Sew around the tag, leaving an opening at the bottom so you can turn it inside out

10. Turn inside out and iron flat.

11. Using a Cricut machine, write the name in your preferred font. Send it to cut and be sure to select ‘Mirror on’ so the name appears the right way around.

Print out names
The first time I printed the names, I forgot to select ‘Mirror on’ – don’t make my mistake!

12. Transfer the name onto your tag using an iron. While you’ve got the iron, tuck in the exposed edge at the base of your tag (the section you didn’t sew) and iron it to create a neat edge.

Iron name onto tag

13. Using a needle and thread, hand stitch the base of your tag closed.

Handstitch tag closed

14. Attached your finished name tag onto your Santa sack.

Stich tag onto sack

Your Santa sack is done!

This was such a fun project to make and I love how sturdy the sack is because of the thick felt lining. While there are some super simple Santa sack DIYs around — many just adding a draw string to a pillowcase — I think it’s worth the extra effort to create a quality sack that can become a keepsake for them. I can’t wait to surprise the kids soon with their Santa sacks.

What do you think of this personalised Santa sack? If you make this DIY, I’d love you to send me a pic at hello@stylecurator.com.au.

More Christmas DIYs

Completed Santa sack
Close up details of santa sack
Luxe Santa sack tutorial
Completed Santa sack
Birds eye of completed Santa sack
Gina Beschorner
Gina is an Interior Designer and the Editor of Style Curator, an award-winning interiors blog all about helping you create a more stylish home. She is passionate about sharing her love of design, architecture, decorating and homewares. Having recently finished the build of her dream home, she's now tackling the never ending job of styling it. When she's not blogging or working with interior styling clients, you'll find her running after her 2 children or getting her hands messy in a creative project. Subscribe to our e-newsletter for weekly highlights!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here