Re-usable Gift Bags

I was recently invited to a Valentine's Tea Party by the 3-year old granddaughter of a friend.  I was instructed to wear red and pink!  And of course you have to take a little gift.  Since I had to make a new top for myself - not having any pink or red in my wardrobe - I decided to use the rest of the bold fabric to make leggings for the hostess and her little sister.  But now I needed a gift bag.

A few years ago, treading lightly on the earth became of more importance to my family.  We no longer buy gift bags or wrapping paper as they can't be recycled.  Instead we make gift bags from fabric which just pass around the family.

I get my fabric from a number of sources and always look for bargains.  My number one place to look for fabric is my local thrift store.  You can often find quilting cotton there.  After Christmas, my local fabric store puts their Christmas fabric on at least 50% off - and sometimes more.  Then I check out the sales and can usually find something suitable there.  And sure enough, I had some pink cotton with hearts on it - perfect!

Making the bag is always a very quick process.  I start by cutting the size I need - in this case I cut my two layers of fabric 11" by 18" which gave me enough to hold the two pairs of leggings and have a flap to fold over.

After a quick iron, I put right sides together and stitched the sides and bottom on my serger.  Since this is a "quick and dirty" project, when I reached one corner I serged a little off the edge, then lifted the foot and slid the next raw side under.  One side of my bag was cut on the fold, so I just ran the serger a few stitches off the end and cut the chain.

You will have a a tiny loop in the corner, but it won't have an impact on how the bag looks or wears.  Leave the tails in place.

Serge around the raw edge at the top of the bag.

Back to the iron, I pressed the bag again and took it to my sewing machine.  I just folded the edge over and stitched through the serged edge.  There's no need to pin in place, just use your eye.

In approximately 10 minutes I had a bag that was ready to go.  After putting the leggings inside, I simply folded the bag top over.  There are lots of ways you can make it more festive - wrap it with a ribbon, pin an inexpensive broach on it, secure it with a gold safety pin, thread a cord through the fold over channel - the only limit is your imagination.  And think of all the wrapping paper you've saved from the landfills!

Free Zippers!

We recently purchased a new duvet cover, a couple of down pillows and pillow protectors in a big sale.  All of the items came in zippered bags.  I'm always on the hunt for zippers as they have so many uses and can be quite expensive to buy new!  I pick them up at the local thrift store very cheaply whenever I can find them and here were 4 zippers free for the taking!

Armed with my trusty seam ripper (made for me by hubby!) I proceeded to liberate them.  I thought it was going to be a lot of work, but the thread used to stitch them into the bags was pretty flimsy.  A few jabs with the seam ripper and they just pulled away!  The zippers were all stitched separately across the ends, but I also secured them with safety pins to remind myself that there weren't proper stoppers.

And at the end of 10 minutes' easy work, I had 7" and 14" zippers and a couple of 33" 2-way zippers to add to my collection.

The remainder of the bags went into our recycling.  I'm doing my bit for reuse/recycle and I get 4 zippers for future use - a good day's work!

Happy sewing!

A Quick Shopping Bag

These days, more and more communities are moving to ban plastic shopping bags.  And I totally sympathize.  We've been using our own shopping bags for years now and have had to replace them a number of times.  Today I decided to try making some simple singlet-style grocery bags.  I found several free patterns online

I started with woven fabric I picked up at my local thrift store.  This is an excellent place to find inexpensive fabric to use in projects like this.  Brightly coloured sheets would also be an excellent source as well.  I wanted a piece of fabric 37 1/2" by 21 1/2", so I folded the fabric in half, selvage edge on the bottom, fold on the left side of my cutting mat and cut a piece 18 1/2" wide and 21 1/2" long.

I folded the fabric right sides together and stitched the open side.  I used my serger, but a sewing machine works just fine.

Next I folded the side in approximately 3".  Since this is sort of a pleat, I marked the sides with a pin, measured 3" each side of the pin and marked them, too.

Then I brought the centre in between the markers and pinned the pleat together.   I did this for each corner as you can see above.

Next step is to serge along one end of the bag.  I did this right sides out.

I always weave the serger ends back into the stitching.

Then I turned the bag inside out and stitched across the seam with my sewing machine, just outside the serger seam.  This is for strength.

Now to cut the opening.  I flipped the bag right sides out again and marked 3" in from the sides and 6" across the bottom of the opening, rounding the corners.

Next, to finish the cut portion I serged along the raw edge.  You could finish this with bias tape if you wanted, but this is just an inexpensive, quick shopping bag, so I just serged the edge to finish it.

Now to cut the handle openings.  I drew a line with a marker with a rounded corner and cut this portion of the inside pleat out.

Then, I serged this raw edge, too.

Nearly done now! I re-folded the handles and serged across the top.

Then flipped that inside out and stitched across the seam with my sewing machine - as I did with the bag bottom.  This gives strength to both those weight-bearing seams.  And that's all there is to it!

This was my first attempt, so what would I do differently next time?  For one thing, I'd use a thinner material - this was almost a flannelette and I think something like a good sheet material would a better choice.  Also, I'd cut the inside of the handle down deeper.  While there's plenty of room for my hands, a bit more would be even better.  And finally, I'm might look for a better way to finish the bottom of the bag so it's more like the plastic bags.  However, this is a great start!