Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I rummaged around in the drawer I have for fabric intended for gift bags. Amazingly, I found a fat quarter of pirate treasure fabric. It is the perfect fabric for my little great nephew.
The EPP ball is all wrapped up and will be heading off to San Diego tomorrow. I need to look up why I bought this fabric.
Remember when I made the EPP ball? Well, it is time to send it off. I have, as you know, two of them to get off to their recipients. I decided at the last minute I needed to make some gift bags. This is for my great niece. It is her second birthday.
I saw an article about Christmas coming up fast. That article and the gift bags I made for birthdays recently reminded me that it was time to encourage all of you to make gift bags! I updated the tutorial and am reposting it here.
I love using fabric gift bags for all types of gifts – birthdays, Christmas, graduations, weddings. Besides the fact that I intensely dislike wrapping gifts with paper, the fabric feels so much nicer in my hands. For Christmas, or other specialty holidays, I also get to sew with the new and beautiful fabrics each year with out committing to a holiday quilt.
Gift bags are a great way to use up scrap fabric that would otherwise hang around unused. If a fabric is no longer to your taste, it will make a great gift bag.
You don’t need super high quality fabric for gift bags either. If stored properly gift bags can be reused year after year.
Supplies:
Supply Notes:
Fabric: the amount you need depends on the gift you are wrapping. If you are making some to have on hand, you can make one bag from a half yard or small bags from a fat quarter. Making gift bags is also a great way to use different fabrics such as upholstery fabric, velvet and other lush fabrics you wouldn’t normally use for quiltmaking.
Decorative stitches: This is a good way to get to know the resources required to use your decorative stitches. I made a lot of bags systematically using all the decorative stitches on my machine. This allowed me to know how much thread each one used and how long they took to stitch out.
Instructions:
Press a double hem on the edge of your fabric that will be the top. I often use the selvedge so I can skip this step.
Finish the hem with a decorative stitch. If you do not have decorative stitches on your machine, two straight stitches close together make a nice finish.
Once done, I fold the piece in half, wrong sides together, aligning the hem at the top. I put a piece of ribbon, folded in half. The end of the ribbon should be sticking out of the piece. Place the ribbon about a quarter of the way down the side.
Stitch down the side, starting with the hem using an 1/8 inch seam allowance. I reinforce the start backstitching over it a few times. I do the same for the ribbon and the end.
After sewing, trim any stray threads. Trim the corners.
Turn the bag wrong side out.
Stitch using a larger seam allowance. A quarter inch seam allowance may work, but you need to make sure you cover the entire previous seam allowance. Again, I reinforce the start backstitching over it a few times. I do the same for the ribbon and the end.
Turn your bag right side out and poke out the corners carefully.
Hooray! You have finished a gift bag!
I spent some time on Friday making gift bags for my mom’s gifts and for a book** I bought for my baby niece.
I realized as I was sewing that my ribbon stash is getting low. I’ll have to buy some ribbon before I start making Christmas and holiday gift bags.
The first bag uses the last of the pink Textured Basics fabrics by Patty Young. I used this fabric for Marianne’s Fresh Fruit quilt. I am pleased with how the bag came out. I did save some of the fabric for Fabric of the Year 2022.
I used some fabric that I found when rummaging for the first Pantone Project blocks for one of my mom’s birthday gifts. I was going to give it away, but ended up using it for the bag. This bag looks great in the picture and the bag construction itself is good. I was going to give it away because the color was too dull. I don’t see that in the picture. It is really old, though I had cut a piece out of it so maybe I bought it after I started on the FOTY series.
Finally, I took a piece of fabric out of my dots collection. This is probably not one that I will use as a background, but I still like it. I think the bow looks especially posh.
All of these bags have French seams, which keep them from raveling.
**Obviously, you should shop at local fabric stores, knitting shops, independent booksellers or quilt shops. However, if you can’t, please know that I use affiliate links. I may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I do not recommend items I don’t like. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
One of the things I like about gift bags is I can make them up quickly.
I made this one, which I think is really pretty, for a small birthday gift. I tried to find some fabric that the recipient would like.
I forgot to post about these Mask Gift Bags. They are Christmas themed, but with masks, so definitely of a time.
I have some small gifts for a friend. As a little palate cleanser, I made some tiny little gift bags to hold the gifts. These were quick to make and I used up some scraps.
Aren’t they adorable?
I finished a few more gift bags from the fabric I received for Christmas from Friend Julie.
As I think I mentioned, we needed small bags, so I have been concentrating on those. They take a long time just because there are more of them. These have been in process for a week or more, but I finally finished them over the weekend. Yay!
I cut out a lot of gift bags from the fabric in which Friend Julie wrapped my Christmas gifts. I was happy about it initially, but then suddenly I had a whole lot of projects on my cutting a sewing tables that were unsewn. I was starting to get cranky and irritable and feel bad about my sewing.
After finishing the A Place for Everything Bag, I was able to free up some time to finish some things laying around my sewing room. Over the weekend I blew through several small projects including some gift bags and really felt good about myself.
Julie wrapped my Christmas gifts in Christmas fabric. I decided to make some bags for Christmas 2022 with the fabric. I did that yesterday.
I made 2 of these. I am working on making smaller bags, because we were kind of short of them when we wrapped gifts during Christmas.
I have started some others, but am not near finishing them.
Even during the holidays, when it is busy, I make gift bags. The other day I went hunting in a ‘gift bag fabric drawer’ I have and pulled out some fabric I have saved for gift bags. There was a lot of birthday gift bag fabric in the drawer, but also a couple of pieces of Christmas fabric I could use.
I keep my gift bag fabric separate because I don’t wash it. The sizing helps keep the gift bags looking crisp and reminds me to wear a mask when I iron them during the construction process
This candy cane heart fabric has been around for a long time. It is cute so I don’t know why I didn’t use it sooner. I had a yard, so I made two bags.
I had some old Debbie Mumm fabric. The fact that I have this fabric at all is a testament to 1) how long I have had it and 2) how little fabric there used to be to buy. Since it is unlikely I will use this for anything else, the fabric has become more gift bags.
In between sewing other projects, I have been making gift bags.
Once again, I am posting a gift bag tutorial to encourage you to forego paper wrapping and wrap your gifts in reusable gift bags. As a reminder, if you do not celebrate Christmas or another gift giving winter holiday, you can still make gift bags for birthdays, graduations, weddings and for giving quilts to people. You can make them using the tutorial below. You can make them using your own tutorial. You can use the In Color Order drawstring bag pattern or you can buy reusable fabric gift bags.
Supplies:
For this tutorial, we will use a fat quarter of fabric
1. If your fat quarter does not have a selvedge, create a hem using two folds so there are no raw edges. If your fat quarter has a selvedge, use the selvedge for the top. It won’t unravel. If you are using the selvedge and not making a hem, skip to step 4.
2. (If you need a hem) Press hem in place.
3. Sew hem with a decorative stitch, if you have it, a zigzag or straight stitch work fine as well.
Optional: If you have stitch letters on your sewing machine, stitch your name and the year so you know when you made the bag.
4. Fold hemmed bag in half WRONG SIDES TOGETHER so that half of the hem is underneath itself towards the top and the fold is on the left. You will be making a French seam.
5. Fold a piece of ribbon about 1.5 feet long in half. You can adjust the size of ribbon you use depending on how much ribbon you need to tie.
6. Place the folded ribbon in the open side of the bag about 4 inches from the top edge/hem.
7. Pin ribbon in place.
8. Pin rest of the right side and bottom closed. NOTE: If you are folding your fabric in half, you will be sewing two sides rather than the side and bottom. Basically, sew the sides or bottom closed depending on where your open edges are.
Use an 1/8 inch seam allowance or as small as you can.
9. Starting from the top, sew down the right side, backstitching at the beginning and over the ribbon 2-3 times. Backstitch at all stress points to keep the bag from ripping apart.
10. Turn at the corner and continue across the bottom, backstitching at the end.
11. Turn the bag inside out, so the right sides are together and the ribbon is out of the way of the seam (It will be inside the bag, but I put mine as straight as possible towards the opposite side of the bag).
12. Press seams, taking care to push them as far out as possible so there is no extra fabric near the seams.
NOTE: If you ribbon is synthetic or delicate, keep it out of the way of the iron.
Use a 1/2 inch or 5/8 inch seam allowance.
13. You are now sewing on the wrong side. Starting at the top, sew down the side and across the bottom again to finish the seam.
The raw edges will now be hidden inside the seams.
14. Open bag to make sure the raw edge is hidden inside the seam.
15. Turn bag inside out and press.
Voila! Your bag is really to use!
Benefits:
Drawbacks:
Any gift bags you make will add to your stockpile. You can use leaders and enders to make them, which means that your regular sewing isn’t interrupted much .
Resources:
I made a couple of gift bags the other day. I haven’t made a lot of gift bags in awhile. I have plenty for normal purposes.
However, I wanted to use one for my BAM swap.
The second one was just a way to use some fabric I was going to give away, but then decided I liked too much.
It is in July that new Christmas fabrics are generally released. This is a good time to talk about gift bags again.
I have been thinking a lot about recycling, especially when we were home for -what seemed like- months during S-i-P. I heard a story on NPR last December a few days before Christmas. The announcer talked about how to tell whether gift wrap is recyclable and gave options for other materials to use. Also, ribbon, bows and glitter are generally not recyclable. He did not talk much about fabric gift bags. I heard this story and, as I had just been wrapping gifts in gift bags, I realized that I wanted to make another play to get people to use fabric.
It doesn’t matter what holidays you celebrate, there is fabric that can be used for every type of event. We use fabric gift bags for birthdays, housewarmings – everything. My SIL and I have made enough so that the extended family use them during Christmas as well.
As I have said before, this was not originally my idea. My SIL started it and I joined in, thinking it was an excellent opportunity to use some great fabric I wouldn’t normally buy or use. It was a lot easier to make bags for the whole family when two of us were sewing. My niece now makes bags which her Mom (not a sewist) uses to wrap her beautiful handmade cards.
One of the reasons I like gift bags is I can buy fun and novelty fabrics for which I usually wouldn’t have a use.
Benefits:
Drawbacks:
You have plenty of time to start stockpiling gift bags. You can use leaders and enders to make them, which means that your regular sewing isn’t interrupted much .
Resources:
I have been working on gifts for almost all of November. That makes it hard to have anything about which to post. The people for whom I am making gifts read my posts. I have almost finished the major gifts for the upcoming holidays, which is a relief. However, I have some gift bags to show you.
I talked about gift bags and making them as I go along earlier this year. It hasn’t worked out completely as planned. I had plenty of leaders and enders projects in the donation quilts I have been making. Also, because bags are good mind sorbet, but boring if you don’t need mind sorbet. Also, I have a lot of small gifts to wrap and small bags are quicker, but also fiddly-er. I will have to buckle down and find some small bags in my stash of bags or make some. The only other alternative is to wrap with actual paper and tape. Bleah.
I wanted to make gift bags in which to wrap the gifts. I have had some fabrics waiting to be made into gift bags. There happened to be some purple that was perfect for some of the gifts I have made.