Fabric Gift Bags Tutorial

CHRISTMAS 2008


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












MERRY CHRISTMAS

My Dyson Plays Music

I'm doing the 'woman' thing today ... dusting, laundry, picking up clutter. Now I'm not suppose to run the vacuum according to my Doctor (back surgeon). He tells me "vacuuming is the worse thing you can do". But today I just couldn't wait for DH .... so I decide to run it in the family room, quilt studio and downstairs bath. I'm going along trying to be super careful when all of a sudden my Dyson makes this rattle noise. I thought oh no I've run over something and did a number on the Dyson. I turn it off when I hear this music playing .... I thought what????? DH is always buying gadgets so how did I know he found a radio that was micro in size. What???? then I realize it's the alarm on my cell phone (I set it to remember to turn the crockpot to low). I laughed out loud .... it's Monday and I'm already off my rocker.


I empty out the container and push it into the family room .... what's that on the floor???? It can't be ........yep it's a nail. Funniest micro radio I've ever seen.