5 years ago
For the past two years I’ve been making gift bags from fabric. We have been reusing all the paper gift bags and I didn’t want to buy new ones but the old ones are starting to tear up and look tired and old. So, it was perfect time to start sewing new ones. Last year I made several bags from cotton canvas, this year I went with this soft cotton broadcloth.
This 100% cotton fabric has wonderful look to it. It’s cute, funny and really Christmassy. It’s a bit childish but not overly and gift bags from this fabric have such a festive look. It is easy to iron, easy to cut and sew. All the good things about cotton are represented in this fabric.
I got 2 m of that and I had none left! I just cut out squares and rectangles in different sizes and sewed all these into 7 simple bags with ribbons to tie them together and 2 cases for the books. Nothing left over! 9 gifts are taken care of!
Seven of these are just the simplest ones you can imagine. A rectangle with 3 sides sewn with French seam, the open edge just folded in twice and I sewed a ribbon into it – just 4-6 cm below the upper edge. You don’t know what the French seam is? It’s the easiest way to get nice and clean look to the edges. First, you’ll put two pieces with wrong sides together and sew. Then you trim the seam allowance and sew the same seam from the wrong side. All the seam allowances will be inside the second seam and you have a clean finish. I really like this look for gift bags, I’m not such a big fan for overlocker seam on these kinds of items.
The two cases for the books or other flat objects are with lining. Just a simple rectangle again, but this time there’s one from the main fabric and one from lining (and there’s a hole for turning the bag out in the side seam of the lining). The main fabric front panel has a strip of fabric in the middle and ribbons sewn onto it. The back panel has a fabric ribbon in the middle of the top edge – when I fold the bag over the front, I can pull the back fabric ribbon through the ribbons on the front. It will be easy to open these gifts, but I do hope my children can keep their fingers away from these if it’s not time to open it yet 😀
I used similar color striped cotton fabric for the lining.
One more thing! As this printed cotton fabric has directional print just be aware that you don’t sew the elves upside down! It almost happened to me :D
I hope the bags I sewed last year will bring joy to others this year as I gifted most of them away. I did talk about reusing them and as I know the people who got them well, I know these will bring happiness for several years. These 9 will stay inside our household and will be definitely used again and again.
Merry Christmas!
#minervamakers #minervamakes #sewchristmas #sewcotton #cotton #broadcloth #sewhome #sewchristmassy #sewingforhome #christmasgiftbags #giftbags #giftmaking #minerva
This 100% cotton fabric has wonderful look to it. It’s cute, funny and really Christmassy. It’s a bit childish but not overly and gift bags from this fabric have such a festive look. It is easy to iron, easy to cut and sew. All the good things about cotton are represented in this fabric.
I got 2 m of that and I had none left! I just cut out squares and rectangles in different sizes and sewed all these into 7 simple bags with ribbons to tie them together and 2 cases for the books. Nothing left over! 9 gifts are taken care of!
Seven of these are just the simplest ones you can imagine. A rectangle with 3 sides sewn with French seam, the open edge just folded in twice and I sewed a ribbon into it – just 4-6 cm below the upper edge. You don’t know what the French seam is? It’s the easiest way to get nice and clean look to the edges. First, you’ll put two pieces with wrong sides together and sew. Then you trim the seam allowance and sew the same seam from the wrong side. All the seam allowances will be inside the second seam and you have a clean finish. I really like this look for gift bags, I’m not such a big fan for overlocker seam on these kinds of items.
The two cases for the books or other flat objects are with lining. Just a simple rectangle again, but this time there’s one from the main fabric and one from lining (and there’s a hole for turning the bag out in the side seam of the lining). The main fabric front panel has a strip of fabric in the middle and ribbons sewn onto it. The back panel has a fabric ribbon in the middle of the top edge – when I fold the bag over the front, I can pull the back fabric ribbon through the ribbons on the front. It will be easy to open these gifts, but I do hope my children can keep their fingers away from these if it’s not time to open it yet 😀
I used similar color striped cotton fabric for the lining.
One more thing! As this printed cotton fabric has directional print just be aware that you don’t sew the elves upside down! It almost happened to me :D
I hope the bags I sewed last year will bring joy to others this year as I gifted most of them away. I did talk about reusing them and as I know the people who got them well, I know these will bring happiness for several years. These 9 will stay inside our household and will be definitely used again and again.
Merry Christmas!
#minervamakers #minervamakes #sewchristmas #sewcotton #cotton #broadcloth #sewhome #sewchristmassy #sewingforhome #christmasgiftbags #giftbags #giftmaking #minerva