How to make a recycled candy wrapper treat pouch

Sweet Tooth Pouch

We don't normally have a lot of candy in the house.  Well, the Halloween candy (at least nothing with chocolate - because that's all eaten within hours) is still in a jar in the kitchen cupboard.  This little project was inspired by my son who asks for candy from the brightly colored packages at the checkout at Target.

So, here's a little "sweet tooth" pouch.

You'll need two candy pouches - I used skittles and M&Ms.  You could use candy bars too (you just might need more than one per side to make it a bit bigger).

You'll also need:

iron-on vinyl 
a zipper (7 - 9" works well)
two pieces of fabric for lining (each should be the size of your candy wrapper).

thread, sewing machine, zipper foot, iron, X-acto knife

First, we'll put the vinyl onto our candy wrappers.  Carefully remove the back of the candy wrapper leaving the top piece fully intact.

Cut two pieces of vinyl slightly larger than the wrapper.  Peel off the paper backing and stick to the front of the wrapper, smoothing out with your fingers.

Using a clean rag (or ironing cloth), iron the vinyl for 8-10 seconds on medium heat.  Repeat for the other side.  Trim any excess vinyl.  Repeat for the other wrapper.

Now that you have your wrappers covered in vinyl, we'll assemble the pouch.

Place your lining fabric right side up and then place the zipper on top matching the edges.  Zipper should be facing up, as in the photo.

Place the wrapper on top (right side down). 

Increase your stitch length and using a zipper foot, sew along the length of the zipper.

Fold over the front and lining (so wrong sides are now touching) and add the other piece of lining and wrapper to the other side of the zipper.

Now the top looks like this:

and the other side looks like this:

Now fold the bag so the the lining is touching and the wrappers are touching (right sides together) like this:

Starting with the lining, sew around the bag.

Make sure you pull the zipper partway open so you can turn it inside out later.

When you get to a zipper, make sure it's "pushed" toward the lining.

Continue around the bag, leaving a large opening at the bottom for turning.  A large opening is best (even larger than pictured below).  The vinyl wrapper is a bit stiff and difficult to fit through a small opening.

Trim the extra zipper bits and trim the corners (turning points).

Carefully turn the bag right side out.  Sew up the bottom of the lining (by hand or machine) and tuck it into the pouch.

Don't forget to have your little one fill it with treasures - a favorite car, a new library card and of course, a frog.