Owl Tote Bag

I'm always looking for new ways to use my Cricut (or justify the need to upgrade to the Expression). We received an invitation to Aunt Pat's 75th Birthday party. Since she loves to read we decided to give her a gift card to a bookstore. I always like to add a personal touch to my gifts and decided to make a book tote. I love owls and thought that it would make an appropriate theme for my tote. This tote was a fun, easy and quick project. If you haven't used the Cricut to cut out fabric appliques I encourage you to try it. It's really quite easy and it opens up a lot of design possibilities.


Owl Tote Bag


Close up of Owl.

Here are the directions for the Owl Tote.

Cricut Hoot 'N Holler cartridge- available only at Walmart

Fabric tote bag- available at Michaels or Walmart

Fat quarter fabrics in brown, gold, green and orange prints- available at Jo-Ann Fabrics

Heat 'n Bond- available at Jo-Ann or Michaels

Small black beads for eyes and green, brown and gold or orange thread for applique.

Painter's Tape- This is necessary to keep the fabric from slipping on the Cricut mat while the machine is cutting out the image.

Brayer- optional


1. Iron the tote bag and the fat quarters to remove creases.

2. Cut gold and orange fabric pieces 6 inches by 6 inches. Cut the brown and green fabric pieces 6 inches wide by 12 inches long.

3. Cut the Heat 'N Bond the same dimensions as the fabric pieces.

4. Lay the fabric pieces (one at a time) face down on an ironing board. You want to fuse the Heat 'N Bond to the wrong side of the fabric. Place the rough side of the Heat 'N Bond on top of the wrong side of the fabric (the paper backing of the Heat 'N Bond should be on top). Heat the iron on Cotton setting and fuse to the fabric according to the directions on the Heat 'N Bond package.

5. After the fabric is cool to the touch place the brown fabric on the Cricut mat fabric side down. It is easier for the Cricut to cut out the image if the paper backing is on top. Firmly press the fabric down on the mat. Use a brayer to help smooth out any bubbles and help the fabric to adhere to the mat. Next cut 2 strips of painter's tape slightly longer than the fabric and tape it to the edges of the fabric. It's okay if the tape extends a little into the green edge of your mat.

6. Load the fabric in the Cricut. Using the Hoot 'N Holler cartridge and Owl 10 cut the owl at 5 inches. With the brown fabric still in the machine press the Shift key and cut Branch 1. Load the gold fabric into the machine and press the Layer key and cut Owl 10. Press the Layer and Shift keys and cut Owl 10 out of the orange fabric.

7. Load the green fabric into the Cricut and cut Branch 1 and then press the Layer and Shift keys and Branch 1 to cut out the leaves.

8. Remove the paper backing from the green branch, brown branch and leaves. Position the green branch on tote bag and fuse in place. Place the brown branch on top of the green branch and fuse in place. Next fuse the leaves in place.

9. Remove the paper backing from the owl and position the owl's feet on top of the branch and fuse in place. Fuse the gold owl on top of the brown and then fuse the orange layer on top of the gold layer.

10. Using the orange thread for the owl stitch around the edges of the owl with a zig-zag stitch. Zig-zag stitch around the owl's feet and the branch with brown thread and around the leaves with green thread.

11. Sew the beads for the eyes in place with a needle and thread.