I really truly hate wrapping paper – so SO much waste. Where i can possibly avoid it I like to wrap presents in fabric, or use fabric bags or totes that are reusable. For the last few years we have used only fabric bags and large pieces of fabric + ribbons to wrap our presents, and its been a huge success. When my kids go to a party i like to make a personalized drawstring bag for their friend, that can be used again. And It’s my favourite way to wrap up baby gifts (like handmade swaddles). My kids are so well trained that when a birthday comes along they go running into my workroom to choose fabric and trims hehe.
Here’s how easy they are to make:
SUPPLIES
You’ll need fabric and ribbons. How large you make your drawstring bag is up to you, and the size of your gift. The drawstring bag I’ll share in this tutorial is a small bag that i made for a friends baby gift, the finished bag measures 11″ x 9″.
Cut your fabric into either two rectangles, or one very long long rectangle that you’ll fold in half. For the bag i’m showing you, i cut a piece of fabric that was 24″ x 10″ – i could also have cut two rectangles that were 24 1/4″ x 10″ with the same effect. I’m going to assume you’re using two rectangles for the rest of this tutorial.
METHOD
Place your two rectangle right sides right sides together and sew down one long edge, along the short edge, and back up the other long edge. Make sure that you leave a gap of 1 1/4″ at the top as you’ll need to use this fabric to make the ribbon casing. I use a seam allowance of 1/4″ so there isn’t too much bulk. In this picture i serged the raw edges, but honestly most of the time i just leave the edges raw.
Fold in the edges of the ribbon casing. You may stitch these down as i have done.
Now fold down each top edge by 3/4″ and sew just over 1/2″ from the folded edges. Make sure you don’t sew the two top edges together or your bag will be permanently closed hehe.
Now you can thread your ribbon through the two ribbon casings by attaching a safety pin to one end and thread through. For this bag i used two ribbons going in opposite directions. Most of the time i only use one ribbon, or rope as with the first bag I showed at the top of this post.
Add your present and you’re done!!
