Hello, and welcome! This Christmas will be mostly handmade at our house. And this includes of course the gift packages. A long time ago I posted here a tutorial for reusable gift bags that are very easy to make. This time, however, I decided to raise the stakes a bit and make a drawstring bag instead.
It takes a bit longer to make than the other, simpler gift bags, but it's still easy. Here's the how to:
You will need two pieces of fabric for the body of the bag (mine were 33 x 26 cm) and two smaller pieces for the drawstring part (mine were 29 x 10 cm). These pieces for the drawstring part can be cut from the same fabric as the bag or from a contrasting fabric and should be slightly wider than the ones for the bag (because you will be hemming the sides in).
Start with the drawstring pieces. Fold each of the smaller sides inward twice and sew the hems.
Next fold the piece in half on the longest side, right sides together, and sew the edges together. Turn inside out and press. Repeat with the other piece. You now have two casings for the string.
Now pin each of the casings to one of the bag pieces as shown below, and sew:
By now it should look like this:
Now pin the two pieces of the bag, right sides together, and sew the sides and the bottom of the bag (sew only the bag pieces, not the casings or you'll close the openings for the drawstring).
If you want to give your gift bag a bit of a flat bottom (optional), sew a triangle off each of the bottom corners.
Turn inside out and the bag in itself is ready. Now you just need to add the string.
I used a piece of red ribbon about 150 cm long. It seems way too long, but it's really not because to have a real drawstring you should make two turns around the casings and then tie a knot.
Happy Monday, and happy crafting!
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Great tutorial! Funny, I found one after Christmas last year and took it apart to use as a Christmas banne.Thank you for sharing at Party In Your PJ's.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I think if you're reusing the bag in some way, it still counts!
DeleteI make a lot of cloth gift bags for my family and the church bazaar. Your drawstring method is superior to mine; I just add two ribbons into a side seam below a 1-2" hem. I upcycle some thrifted tablecloths, scarves, etc; they have hemmed and selvage edges that cuts down on sewing. I also use my collection of tins as gift containers here at home. We no longer fill the woodstove 4x with discarded gift wrap! Now that's green!
ReplyDeleteWe do the same, it's been years since I bought wrapping paper and it's great! I know what you mean about the bags - that's a much quicker method and one I use a lot. But this year since I've been working from home and have a bit more time to sew I decided to try the drawstrings. They're not my favorite thing to sew but I'm living the way they turned out.
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