Learn how to make a play grocery bag from felt – no sewing required!

I designed and built a play market for my daughter ages ago, and I’m still building up to actually posting that project for you guys. It really is the cutest freaking thing, so it’s worth the wait. Promise! But in the meantime, you get to come along with me for all the little projects I did along the way! 

I already shared how to make DIY play food for kids, and you may have caught the toy grocery bags in that post…

This play grocery sack tutorial is SO quick and easy, you guys! And if you don’t care about having a logo printed on it, then all you need is felt, scissors, and glue! 

Free Playmart Logo

If you happen to love the adorable Playmart logo I created for the store, then you’re in luck!

I’m offering it as a free download for my newsletter subscribers. Just subscribe to my newsletter and within a few minutes, you’ll receive an email with a link to my exclusive subscriber library along with a password. 

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You’ll be able to use the logo for all kinds of cute playthings, like grocery bags, aprons, nametags, a wall sign — whatever you can dream up!

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How to Make a No-Sew Toy Grocery Bag from Felt

Supplies

Here’s a list of everything you need to make an adorable toy grocery bag! I’m linking to the exact supplies that I use for my projects at home, but you can substitute what you have on-hand if it’s similar. The supply list below includes affiliate links from which I could earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. You can find all my favorite crafting and sewing essentials right here.

• Brown felt
• Ruler
• Scissors or rotary cutter
• Pinking shears or rotary pinking blade
• Cricut EasyPress or Iron (I sew a lot and am obsessed with my iron.)
• Cricut EasyPress Mat or ironing board
• Felt glue, fabric glue or sewing machine and brown thread
• For optional logo:
  • Cricut machine
    • Cricut Explore Air 2
    • Cricut Maker
    • Cricut Joy
  • StandardGrip cutting mat
  • Cricut Infusible Ink transfer sheet
  • Playmart logo file – Sign up for my emails to receive a link and password to download it instantly!

Instructions

1. Measure and cut your felt with sewing shears or a rotary cutter. You need five pieces in total per bag:

• 9″ x 11″ – 2 for the front/back
• 4.5″ x 11″ – 2 for the sides
• 4.5″ x 9″ – 1 for the bottom

2. Cut a zigzag across the top of each piece except for the bottom. You can use pinking shears or a rotary cutter with a pinking blade.

If you don’t have either of those, you can hand-cut a zigzag or just skip this step. It’s not critical. It just helps the bags look more realistic. 

3. Press folds into the felt to make the different parts of the bag. You can do this with your iron or an EasyPress, but you want it to be hot enough to just barely start melting the felt fibers (if you’re using a synthetic felt) so that the creases will be permanent. I like using the EasyPress and EasyPress mat because it covers the full surface at once with pressure and without any shifting or moving.

Fold and press the two narrow sides in half, as pictured above. Fold and press the front piece up 2.25″ from the bottom. It should be folded up half the width of the bottom piece, which is pictured on the far right.

Tip: If this is confusing, read through the rest of the steps to see how it’s assembled, and it should make more sense! 

4. Add a logo to the front piece. You can do this with iron-on vinyl (HTV) or Infusible Ink. This is another place where the EasyPress comes in handy! If you don’t have a Cricut or Silhouette machine, you could always hand paint a logo with regular acrylic paint. 

Tip: Never tried Infusible Ink before? I wrote a whole post  about how to use it and a bunch of Cricut Infusible Ink tips along with another free download!

5. Cut a small half-circle out of the front top. I traced the inside of a roll of tape and then just cut it out with scissors. You can see this in the photo below. 

6. Glue or sew the pieces together. For a long-lasting hold, use a thin bead of felt glue or fabric glue, not regular crafting glue, right up against the edge of the felt. I recommend going in the same order I did to make everything as simple as possible.

First, attach the two side to the back. The folds should open toward the outside of the bag, as pictured above. 

Then, glue the front onto the other side. Let it dry completely before moving onto the bottom.

Once it’s totally dry, fold the bottom of the front up where you pressed it earlier. Press it again to crease the place where the sides meet the front at the fold. 

You should be looking at a rectangle opening at the bottom now. Squeeze a line of glue around the perimeter, and attach the bottom piece.

Once it’s completely dry, press the bottom.  

If you pressed your folds and assembled according to the instructions, your grocery bags will fold completely flat, just like regular paper bags at the store. 

Printable Instructions

Yield: 1 bag

How to Make a No-Sew Toy Grocery Bag from Felt

Print

You can't have a play grocery store without an adorable "brown paper" felt toy grocery bag! Plus, download the free logo file to iron on with your Cricut!

Active Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 10 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Difficulty Beginner

Materials

• Brown felt
• Ruler
• Scissors or rotary cutter
• Pinking shears or rotary pinking blade
• Cricut EasyPress or Iron (I sew a lot and am obsessed with my iron.)
• Cricut EasyPress Mat or ironing board
• Felt glue, fabric glue or sewing machine and brown thread
• For optional logo:
• Cricut machine
• Cricut Explore Air 2
• Cricut Maker
• Cricut Joy
• StandardGrip cutting mat
• Cricut Infusible Ink transfer sheet
• Playmart logo file - Sign up for my emails to receive a link and password to download it instantly!

Instructions

1. Measure and cut your felt. Here's what you need for one bag: 9″ x 11″ – 2 for the front/back, 4.5″ x 11″ – 2 for the sides, 4.5″ x 9″ – 1 for the bottom
2. Cut a zigzag across the top of each piece except for the bottom piece.
3. Press fold into the felt with enough heat to fuse the creases. Press the two sides in half long-ways. Press the front up 2.25" from the bottom.
4. Add the optional logo to the front piece (the one with the fold) using HTV iron-on vinyl or Infusible Ink.
5. Cut a small half-circle out of the front top, just like a paper bag at the grocery store.
6. Glue or sew all the pieces together, and press again when dry.

Notes

If you find the instructions confusing for any of these steps, scroll up and refer to the pictures in the post for clarity.