Quilting Nanny: halloween

October 27, 2010

DOG the Who? What?

DOG the Bounty Hunter and his wife Beth

OK I admit I had no clue who, what was "DOG the Bounty Hunter". Didn't they look the greatest for the party. I love her handcuff necklace.

OH my gosh I almost forgot ...... here's Lit'le DOG

HE HE HE I know I'm so bad ........

December 12, 2009

One of my favorite blogs is Tommy the Material Girl. Recently Tommy was bemoaning the fact that she could not get boxes from Macy's where she had purchased 18 outfits for family. Of course, I had to tell her forget those boxes and make your own fabric gift bags.

Seven or eight years ago I decided 'no more wrapping paper'. I decided to use my fabric stash that could (and still does) rival a quilt shop .... stashbusting.

Here's a quickie tutorial ... I use that word tutorial loosely, by the way. When you're first starting out making your fabric gift bags start by making the bag to fit a specific gift.

1. I loosely estimate all around the item. The fabric is folded in half so it's really double what you see in the photo.

2. Cut the piece.

3. Open the fabric out and measure down for the fold over. I now like to use a deeper fold over of 5-6 inches

.

4. Turn under 1/2 inch to hit the raw edge, press.

5. Now open it out completely and sew the sides and bottom. If you don't have a serger use your regular sewing machine.

6. Now stitch the cuff in place.

7. Stitch across the bottom corners to make the box edge.

8. I also attach my ribbon to the bag. Measure out approximately 43 inches.

9. Stitch the ribbon to the middle of the bag.

10. You're done.

Now next year if some of your bags are too large hey just take the seam in with a basting stitch ... poof it's a smaller size instantly. AND yes the gift bags must be returned to me ... reuse for the next year you know. LOL

I do make gift bags for all occassions and holidays ... no wrapping paper, no tissue paper and no tape necessary. If you don't have enough of one fabric hey sew two together. The largest bag I've made held a Dyson (see below). Yahooooooo