Tuesday, December 20, 2011

wrap it up

christmas remains
We've always enjoyed creative and green gift wrapping, but last year I had big plans for making drawstring cloth bags for all of our family presents. I gathered up my material that felt festive and cheery. Stacks of red and white scraps and yardage sat on my work table with high hopes of seeing seams and drawstring channels. And there they sat, as slippers, buckets, and the like got sewn. As the big day loomed, I acknowledged that it wasn't to be... but maybe that was for the best. Simply wrapping presents up with those piles of fabric kept my options open. No cutting or sewing allowed me to keep some beautiful yardage that I'd rather save in one piece. It also inspired me to get creative with other materials that I wasn't ready to cut up. Out came vintage napkins and tea towels.. such perfect sizes for wrapping! The children struggled with using only yarn on some of the odd shaped packages. A little tape came to the rescue. Last year worked out so well, that we'll be following suit this week. We'll use the large pieces for big items and fold scraps to size for smaller presents. No scissors! The pile above is a photo taken on Christmas morning 2010... the happy aftermath. Later we rolled up the yarn, saved the tags, and folded the fabric to go back on the shelf. It didn't take long with everyone's help. Below is the after shot- neat and tidy.
christmas wrapping
I'll be making some more tags like these... they make me happy! Yesterday my daughter and her friend had a wonderful time making little watercolor snowflakes to top presents and just to give.
My daughter's water color snowflakes. With a little glitter too!
I helped them punch 2" flakes out of watercolor paper. They added glitter glue after the paint... which diluted the paint, but they didn't care. Glitter is essential.

If you're looking for wrapping options, it really doesn't have to be complicated, nor involve scissors and thread.  Napkins, tablecloths, and pieces of fabric are all you really need. Tie it up with ribbons and yarn. Add handmade gift tags and you'll be set! This works for everyone on your giving list, but especially for those presents that stay right at home. Pin It

11 comments:

  1. A good green idea. I certainly have stacks of fabric, and seeing it out might inspire me to get busy and sew something.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great green idea! It's so fun to open packages that were specially wrapped. It makes the gift inside even more fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i love it! i would like to start using fabric to wrap our christmas gifts. i have been using my kids' artwork as wrapping paper for gifts but the fabric definitely produces less waste!

    ReplyDelete
  4. All year I buy red and white fabrics to one day sew into Christmas gift bags. Thank you for giving me an even better green option!
    Did you get my email about the bucket?
    xoxo
    ~ joey ~

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this idea and also it isnt Christmas material which I dont have but old sheets and table cloths I have.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great ideas! I love your handmade gift tags.

    xo

    ReplyDelete
  7. i loved doing this last year as well...but this year i will get the family involved in the merry cleanup! love it! happy holidays!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Such a good idea! I love the fabric in the top left corner of the top photo - do you know what it is? Crossing my fingers it's still available!
    x Katherine

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kitten's Lost Her Mittens- I do to and so I've never cut into it. I got it at a garage sale a few years back so I don't know how old it is or what it's called (now selvedge left). I'm sorry!:(

    ReplyDelete
  10. We made gift bags from recycled brown paper this year and stamped stars all over them ( and yes there was lots of glitter...four childrens-worth of it) but they went down well and saved so much time usually spent wrapping :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. We are on the same wavelength with thinking about the wrapping for next year! I just posted a tutorial on how to get started with the cloth gift bag thing. There are advantages to going that extra step from piece of cloth to bag. For anyone that's interested:
    http://whereelse.ca/sunsetquilting/?p=2774

    ReplyDelete