Excellent ideas. I particularly like the self-tie bag. I am also a proponent of wrapping gifts in fabric and using trim or ribbon to tie with. Of course a good few of the recipients are also sewists so it's more like stash trading.
Fantastic ideas, and the commentary is on point (the comment about french seams ended me). I am now staring at my smaller scraps and contemplating patchwork giftbags...
This is certainly much more professional than my usual thing of finding fabric scrap that I think the recipient will like and bundling the present into it
Honestly this is a fantastic idea for my quilt making, scrap fabric turned into rugs, sister lol No seams to pull out, just roll up the rest of the gift in the fabric and tie a ribbon or something
*Sigh* I sat transfixed yet again! And your running commentary, especially about doing French seams on a gift bag, fantastic! This is another I'm saving to my How-To Playlist! Happy gift-giving season!
I should know by now that you always go above and beyond! I figured I would get the usual bags but these are so much nicer! I've been trying not to think about how very fast the end of the year is approaching!! I'm so not ready!!!
I couldn't be bothered to pull out my wrapping, so I just crocheted a couple of gift bags just big enough for the gift. Love these ideas for future gifting opportunities!
Ash, I love your tutorials and how realistic and easy to follow they are. Always good to remind me that it doesn't have to be perfect in certain situations, makes things seem more achievable and like i can tackle it without too much procrastination/hesitation. Thank you and I hope you have a lovely Christmas/new year period. I'm certainly doing these next year when the last bit of paper i have runs out!
I went with extra brown paper bags and manilla envelopes from my buy nothing group this year. Prior to that I bought one gigantic roll of decent quality, non-descript, wrapping paper and used that for every holiday; I still have some left but I couldn't be bothered to actually spend the time wrapping things nicely this year. These bags are definitely cuter.
I generally do the ribbon channel by hemming the top of the pouch and making that the channel (you can clip off the seam allowance or just leave it). I also have done lined ones where the lining folded over the top edge to become the channel. This was the first thing my mom taught me to sew.
The pouch at about the 8 min mark took me right back to childhood! One Christmas I was panic making my mom friendship bracelets but I wanted something nice to put them in as well and I cut up and old shirt, found some yarn, raided moms sewing stuff to find a spool of thread and a needle and essentially hand stitched a mini version of that bag, completed with braided yarn drawings so it closed nicely. My mom asked where I got the bag from and I said proudly “I made that!” I think I was just 9 or 10, but thinking back, I was a pretty crafty kid. I loved learning stuff by eyeballing it. Kind of deconstruct it in my mind and see if I can do it myself.
People should really do this. I haven't bought wrapping paper for about 30 years, it's just so wasteful. I either use fabric bags or use the inside side of paper grocery bags (I sometimes forget to bring my reusable ones to the store). But I often take more time during the year to make the bags and personalize them, so they can be used by the person receiving it. Like gym sacks for kids with their name on it.
omg i wish i had found this at christmas! i wanted to make bags instead of paper again! but waited till the last possible min. to buy gifts and just could not sew bags to fit them, really i just stressed about how complicated it was gonna be.... man you just went and made to so easy.. thank you... awesome
What a great little set of tutorials! Even some bonus ASMR. ... was that first "gift" a bag of microwave popcorn? I am going to start making these all year round when I'm between projects and finding myself wanting something to mindlessly hand-sew whilst I watch something. Then I'll have a stash ready for birthdays or holidays! Thanks Ash, flippin' excellent as always.
Pinking shears are your "can't be bothered" friend for all seasons, but they become your BEST FRIEND FOREVER during holiday season.
Excellent ideas. I particularly like the self-tie bag. I am also a proponent of wrapping gifts in fabric and using trim or ribbon to tie with. Of course a good few of the recipients are also sewists so it's more like stash trading.
Don’t forget to knot the ends of the two drawstrings! It makes it easier to handle.
Brilliant, and very timely. ❤ I didn’t ever think about make self-ties with the ends of the top of the bag!
Happy Holiday
Fantastic ideas, and the commentary is on point (the comment about french seams ended me). I am now staring at my smaller scraps and contemplating patchwork giftbags...
Every part of this comment is too underrated! 💖
This is certainly much more professional than my usual thing of finding fabric scrap that I think the recipient will like and bundling the present into it
No need for me to seam rip it to make something else from it!
Honestly this is a fantastic idea for my quilt making, scrap fabric turned into rugs, sister lol No seams to pull out, just roll up the rest of the gift in the fabric and tie a ribbon or something
*Sigh* I sat transfixed yet again! And your running commentary, especially about doing French seams on a gift bag, fantastic! This is another I'm saving to my How-To Playlist!
Happy gift-giving season!
I should know by now that you always go above and beyond! I figured I would get the usual bags but these are so much nicer!
I've been trying not to think about how very fast the end of the year is approaching!! I'm so not ready!!!
This is glorious - thank you so much! Inspiring and achievable all at once. You are my new sewing deity 😊
I couldn't be bothered to pull out my wrapping, so I just crocheted a couple of gift bags just big enough for the gift. Love these ideas for future gifting opportunities!
Ash, I love your tutorials and how realistic and easy to follow they are. Always good to remind me that it doesn't have to be perfect in certain situations, makes things seem more achievable and like i can tackle it without too much procrastination/hesitation. Thank you and I hope you have a lovely Christmas/new year period. I'm certainly doing these next year when the last bit of paper i have runs out!
I went with extra brown paper bags and manilla envelopes from my buy nothing group this year.
Prior to that I bought one gigantic roll of decent quality, non-descript, wrapping paper and used that for every holiday; I still have some left but I couldn't be bothered to actually spend the time wrapping things nicely this year. These bags are definitely cuter.
These are so cute, especially the ghost/pink ribbon one! I would appreciate that as much as the gift inside tbh 👻
I love being able to share bits of fabrics I adore with people
Such cute bags🌞👍
Genius
Absolute genius. All of them. Thank you for the practical approach - why do French seams on a gift bag? Totally.
I'll have to do this next year. I already caved and bought wrapping paper again.
Best tutorial I've ever seen!!!!!💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
👍🏻 great.
But if you wanted to learn how to do french seams but have been intimidated... this is a good, low commitment time to practice them.
Great point. They should not be intimidating, but for some reason (for me) they are!!
I generally do the ribbon channel by hemming the top of the pouch and making that the channel (you can clip off the seam allowance or just leave it). I also have done lined ones where the lining folded over the top edge to become the channel. This was the first thing my mom taught me to sew.
The pouch at about the 8 min mark took me right back to childhood! One Christmas I was panic making my mom friendship bracelets but I wanted something nice to put them in as well and I cut up and old shirt, found some yarn, raided moms sewing stuff to find a spool of thread and a needle and essentially hand stitched a mini version of that bag, completed with braided yarn drawings so it closed nicely. My mom asked where I got the bag from and I said proudly “I made that!” I think I was just 9 or 10, but thinking back, I was a pretty crafty kid. I loved learning stuff by eyeballing it. Kind of deconstruct it in my mind and see if I can do it myself.
People should really do this. I haven't bought wrapping paper for about 30 years, it's just so wasteful. I either use fabric bags or use the inside side of paper grocery bags (I sometimes forget to bring my reusable ones to the store).
But I often take more time during the year to make the bags and personalize them, so they can be used by the person receiving it. Like gym sacks for kids with their name on it.
omg i wish i had found this at christmas! i wanted to make bags instead of paper again! but waited till the last possible min. to buy gifts and just could not sew bags to fit them, really i just stressed about how complicated it was gonna be.... man you just went and made to so easy.. thank you... awesome
What a great little set of tutorials! Even some bonus ASMR.
... was that first "gift" a bag of microwave popcorn?
I am going to start making these all year round when I'm between projects and finding myself wanting something to mindlessly hand-sew whilst I watch something. Then I'll have a stash ready for birthdays or holidays! Thanks Ash, flippin' excellent as always.
On a pouch kick I see