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!”