fabric gift bags

Have you found any Christmas Spirit yet? Here is a great way to get a start on Christmas crafting!

After years of using disposable paper gift wrap and seeing it all end up in a huge trash bag after Christmas, my husband and I decided that this year we would make something reusable. 

To make these gift bags you will need:

Festive holiday fabric

1 inch wide ribbon

Big Buttons or Beads

Safety Pin

Needle and Thread

You can make gift bags in any size, you'll probably want several in different sizes 

for different sized presents. 

Cut your fabric twice as wide as you want your bag, and 1 inch taller.

Most colored fabrics are thick enough to hide what's inside, but if you have a white fabric, you might want a liner. Just cut another piece of white fabric the same size and line it up at the back when you sew.

Start by folding the top edge down one inch to the back and sew it down. 

If you can, leave selvages at one or both sides. 

Next, fold the fabric in half right side in, with the hemmed edge at the top. Now sew along the side and bottom edge, starting just under the top hem and leaving the two holes open.

Now turn your bag right side out and get out your ribbon and a big safety pin. Run the ribbon through the drawstring hole at the top. Be sure to leave enough ribbon so that it doesn't 

get lost inside when you open the bag!

I stitched a big button onto each end of my ribbons to keep them from going back in. 

You could also use big beads or just a big knot.

Wrap up your gifts in style!

I whipped up these really simple drawstring bags in a just little more time than it would have taken to actually wrapped presents in paper! Of course, if you like tightly wrapped presents, you can always wrap boxes in plain or embroidered fabric, just fold in the extra fabric around the edges and tape it in place.

I hope you will make some reusable gift wrap this year and cut down on the after Christmas trash. :)

I've been adding to our bag collection each year with a few more and now we have a large stash all ready for wrapping! Plus, isn't this a great excuse to buy lots of cute fabric? :)