So, I started making the bags for the gifts my grand-daughter made for her teachers today. You can find the gift ideas and how to for here. This was one of those ideas that came to me last minute. I thought the homemade bags added a nice touch to a homemade gift. But because it was a last minute thought, it was also something I started without finding out if I had everything I needed.
Thankfully, I buy things on sale when I see it because it “might be useful for something” and I rarely throw away scraps of any good size. This is handy and can make for a stack of “stuff” that my other half is not always real happy about:-) But hey, he does the same, so he generally is pretty quiet about it.
Gathering your materials
A few thoughts before you get started.
Be sure to think about and then gather all your materials ahead of time, so you have everything at hand. This is something I’m real bad about. I will think of an idea and start putting it together without thinking the whole project through first. Then I find myself in the middle of a project looking for something (like my pinking sheers) and not finding it or having to improvise. Note to self……
These bags can be made from any cloth you may have laying around. It can be a good way to re-purpose old shirts or pretty sheets. Or, in my case, a while back I bought some remnant cloth for less than a dollar with a Christmas theme, so I started with that.
I ran out of the remnant cloth for the teacher’s gifts so I looked around a little more and found some old left-over fabric I used to trim some kitchen curtains I made a few years back and decided to use the rest of that.
Assembling your DIY bags
I’m not a seamstress, by any stretch of the word. I have a sewing machine my mom got me for my birthday, probably 20 years ago, but it rarely gets used. I do have, however, a good amount of ironing tape I got from my mom. This I can do.
I cut the fabric to size. I wasn’t terribly worried about the perfection of the shape so I just eyeballed it. Then I cut the ironing tape to fit the 3 sides and just ironed them together, right sides out.
Once I got them ironed, I realized I wasn’t real happy with the look of the edges. So when I finally found my pinking sheers I cut the edges making a zig zag. That made the sides look more finished.
The left over kitchen curtain fabric was really thick and it didn’t like the ironing tape. It just wouldn’t stay stuck, so I actually had to do some sewing. Since I didn’t want the edges to be raw, I bought some bias tape to use along the sides. These bags were folded on the bottom, so I only had do deal with the sides. So I cut the bias tape to fit and sewed the edges with the tape finishing the sides.
Closing your bags
I came up with several ways of closing the bags, but in the end decided the simpler the better. I used some left over gold cord (from a Halloween costume) and Christmas ribbon to close them.
Creating the bags was easy. Think your idea through and pull all of your materials together and you’ll save yourself a ton of time.
If you know of someone who can use this idea, be sure to share this post with them. And, please let me know if you’ve made your own gift bags. I’d love to know what you used and how you put them together. You can leave pictures and share your gift bag projects in the comments below.
Talk to you again soon.
Health, Wealth & Blessings~ Tracey