Christmas Gift Bag Miscellany
We're having a lot of miscellaneous posts around here these days, aren't we?
I promise that after the holidays have past, I'll write some more substantive posts (I have a million ideas swirling around in my head), but for now, miscellany is what works for me.
Can you guess what this gift bag is made from?
It was inspired by this little pillow that Lisey made and embroidered.
And the fabric she used came from my old ironing board cover. Yes, indeed.
I've used that cover since we got married 13 years ago, and this year, it got so worn, it started to tear. Happily, I found a new ironing board cover at Goodwill (yay for Target goods at Goodwill), so I retired my old silver one.
As you know, I hate to throw stuff away, and the fabric from the cover was a fun metallic type, so I folded it up and stuck it in my basket of fabric. Lisey's been busy embroidering and sewing this fall, and she had the brilliant idea to cut the cover up and embroider it.
I liked hers so much, I gave it a try with a portion of the fabric, and this was the result.
If I had it to do over again, I'd have place the embroidered stars lower on the bag, because once you put something in the bag and tie it up, the stars are decidedly not centered anymore.
Still, I'm pretty pleased that something so useful has come from what most people would categorize as trash.
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Last year, I made some very colorful gift bags from a pj shirt that we got for free...I think it was from a church clothing exchange or something. Now, my particular tastes run more towards burgundy velvet, or black.
However, my kids think that obnoxiously colored bags are significantly more beautiful. 😉
I made two bags out of the sleeves, which worked out great because the cuffs were already make of pink satin...perfect for the top of a gift bag. And making a bag from sleeves is super easy because pretty much all you have to do is hem the bottom!
I made a big bag from the body of the shirt. I use this to wrap Lisey's gifts because she can be trusted not to unbutton the bag to take a peek, but if I wanted to use it for Sonia or Zoe, I could just sew the placket shut.
and I even used the collar portion to make a small sort of asymmetrical bag.
That worked out nicely because the collar trim makes kind of a nice top.
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Do you know what's really lovely about cloth gift bags? Once you have them made, the wrapping process is SO easy.
1. Place items in bag.
2. Tie a ribbon around the top.
Love it!
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You're probably not in a position today to make a pile of gift bags, but if you'd like to give it a try sometime in the coming year, bookmark my post about how to make cloth gift bags. It's not hard, and it's a great way to salvage old clothes (or, um, ironing board covers!).
Have a lovely Christmas Eve day! I'm off to make French Bread, several nut rolls, and a ring of Monkey Bread (which will sit in the fridge overnight, to be baked tomorrow morning) before we celebrate with my in-laws later today.
Today's 365 post: "I don't want any sprinkles to get me in the eyes, Mommy!"
I love the miscellany posts, so keep 'em coming. 🙂
Since we don't celebrate Christmas nor do we have a tree to put presents under, we often just don't wrap gifts at all. I just pull the items off the top shelf of the closet and hand them to the kids. Sometimes I wrap them in comics/newspapers, just for the fun of unwrapping. Mostly I think it's just such a waste of paper that it's not worth it! Of course, your reusable bags are a whole different thing. I'll have to give that some thought for next year.
I do have a pair of jeans with a hole in the thigh that I'm thinking I might make into a skirt like you did for Lisey last summer. Got to go look that one up...
Have a wonderful holiday, Kristen. Much happiness to you and your family.
This year I placed my small family gifts inside a bright oven mitt I made. For under our tree I found an unopened roll of Christmas wrap at a local thrift store for 50 cents and a huge spool of ribbon for 25 cents, I love your ironing board cover bag. Very clever!
Merry Christmas!
We sometimes use pieces of fabric to wrap as you would use paper. It takes a little practice to get it to all hold in place with a ribbon. My grandmother taught me the trick she learned as a gift wrapper at Wannamakers dept. store 50+ years ago. They were not permitted to use tape when they wrapped the gifts. You know ,expensive tape and all. 😉 . Anyway, when your done with the fabric, you just fold it up and pop it back in the fabric basket. Although, honestly most of our gifts are done in paper. Merry Christmas!
We sometimes use pieces of fabric to wrap as you would use paper. It takes a little practice to get it to all hold in place with a ribbon. My grandmother taught me the trick she learned as a gift wrapper at Wannamakers dept. store 50+ years ago. They were not permitted to use tape when they wrapped the gifts. You know ,expensive tape and all. 😉 . Anyway, when your done with the fabric, you just fold it up and pop it back in the fabric basket. Although, honestly most of our gifts are done in paper. Merry Christmas!
Just had to tell you about a wonderful find at Goodwill yesterday. I have all my shopping done, but wanted to find some Terry Pratchett books for my nineteen year old, who told me there is nothing he wants but some books would be good (from TP though!). No luck finding books, but happened to see a metal tin with the word Coach on it. I have a coach bag that I have used for years and my mom also has a couple. I thought it was just a tin but upon opening it discovered it was a complete, nearly new handbag cleaning kit! It had two soft brushes, a cloth and a new bottle of coach leather cleaning solution. I was so pleased! It was only five dollars which I thought was a wonderful deal. I picked it up and will give it to my mom. She will be thrilled. Even though I had already gotten her a gift I just couldn't pass it up!
I was thinking about old prom dresses for flashy gift bags. Our Goodwill is loaded with them and the color choices could go on and on. Why not?
What a great idea! I think I will make some bags soon.
I didn't get any gift bags made this year (like I said I was going to on your first post about them)...too busy here the past 2 months, but I am going to try and get some made for next year. Thank you for posting about making them.
Thank you for all of your time and energy this year blogging for us. Much appreciated. Wishing you and your family a very, merry Christmas, filled with joy and much happiness.
I am SERIOUSLY coveting a sewing machine...between your gift bags and seeing people altering and fixing clothes they get from Goodwill and the like I feel very handicapped in my ability to do these fabulous things. But I refuse to go buy a new one from Wal-Mart so I guess I just have to keep holding out. I will live vicariously through your craftiness instead 🙂
Tina,
Check around for a sewing machine repair shop. They usually have reconditioned machines for sale, with a warranty!
Thanks for the Monkey Bread idea! I am going to make some right now!
Merry Christmas!
I am ending up using only 3 bags this year for my kids' presents. Because my sons are autistic, it gets very overwhelming to open new toy after new toy. They really don't like it. So this year they open one each day for a few days before Christmas. Much less overwhelming that way, and stretches out the fun, since they only get about 3 things each. But I just reuse each bag, one per kid. After they open one gift, I steal the bags back and package up the next night's toy. Love it!
I LOVE this idea! I will definitely save it for future gifts!
Merry Christmas!!
very cute!!! If only I had a few more hours in the day!
Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas!
Loving these posts!
Love the gift bags! I have a bag of cast off shirts that would make great gift bags. What a fun way to wrap birthday presents, too! There is always a lot of eye rolling at my house Christmas morning, because I make my family carefully open the gift bags and save all the fancy Christmas ribbon to put in the wrapping box to be used the next year ;D. I hope your family has a very Merry Christmas!
Very nice.