Making a felt bag with a base / gusset

[KingscoteStaff]

I teach Year 6 and our DT topic is Textiles. In previous years they have made pencil cases from felt and decorated them with embroidery + appliqué.

However, the new Head of DT says that this does not show enough progress from the hand puppets they made in Year 2. She wants us to create a more 3D shape.

I made these today - I long rectangle and then either a circle or an oval for the base, but it was really tricky to sew the side piece onto the base - I tried with blanket stitch and running stitch.

Could any clever crafter give me a steer on the best way to do this - they are a class where very few will have touched a needle since Year 2. Thank you!!

Weirdly I have just finished a felt bag with a gusset! The way the pattern works for mine is:

• make the body of the bag in two halves
• sew the base of each half to the gusset
• fold the gusset in half lengthwise so it's sandwiched inside the bag with the centre fold facing upwards
• the gusset now has side folds tucked up against the edges of the sides
• sew the end edges of the gusset to the sides of the bag
• sew the rest of the bag edges to each other to complete the bag

Hope this makes sense!