Monday, March 22, 2010

Homemade Gift Bags

With James' birthday just around the corner and in an effort to go a little more green, save money, and feed my creating needs, I whipped up a bunch of homemade drawstring gift bags using this tutorial.
love the pattern on this fabric!

Not only are these cheaper to make than the cost of the paper gift bags you can buy at the store, they are also prettier, very eco-friendly and, of course, made with lots of love. Oh and they'll last forever, too!

Greens and blues - my favorite colors.

Hard to see in the photo, but these are pinstriped. The tall one is holding a bottle of wine.

A large bag with a sweet farm pattern to hold James' wooden farm animals.

I feel fortunate to have found such nice fabric down here. With only one fabric store on the island, it's slim pickin's to say the least. Some of it I bought half off during an after Christmas sale. The yarn was a bit of a splurge though - I bought organic cotton (sooo soft) and some wool because it's so much nicer to work with (I fingerknitted the yarn into drawstrings).

I made a few of these little bags for James' Easter basket.

So... what do you think? You should make some too! Honestly, they take such little time to put together and you only need to have very basic sewing skills. I hand stitched all of these, though a sewing machine would make the process even faster (if that's your goal).

13 comments:

The Activity Mom said...

wow those are awesome! I would be THRILLED if we left a party with one of those! =)

Mommy Moment said...

Lovely work! You always amaze me!
Just wondering where you got the wooden animals?

Thanks,
Jody

Anonymous said...

ooo those are so cute! I saved the pattern for some gift bags for Sammy's birthday at the end of next month :-). Are you going to do a party for James?

Quixotic said...

Oh, you are sooo full of good ideas!! I HATE wasting money on gift wrap, gift bags etc., I'm going to actually pull out my dusty old sewing machine and fire it up!!!

DB said...

OMG M-A, where on earth do you find the time?!!!!
You are just brilliant.

My Boys' Teacher said...

Thanks for this! I'm going to put my mom to work! I need drawstring bags for the school room and for the the crayon rocks the boys use and I give away as gifts.

Susan-Chasing Marcus said...

Those are great. I am so impressed at what you do....especially with out a sewing machine! I make alot of draw string bags for Sophie's toys. I HATE missing pieces for a toy, it drives me crazy.

Unknown said...

Love the bags! You are so crafty:) Thanks for your comments on my blog. Sorry I've been MIA lately. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things!!
I wish I had more energy to try some of your cute craft projects. Someday....
Hugs!

The Sunshine Crew said...

Very cute bags! Cool idea!

Jen said...

I just wrote this same thing on your private blog: you are amazing! I love these bags and I totally agree with Activity Mom, I would be thrilled to leave a party with one of these!!

Counting Coconuts said...

Aw, you guys are too good. Thank you for your kind words!

Jody, the wooden animals are made in Germany by two different toy makers: Engelberger and Ostheimer - you can find their toys at Nova Naturals and The Wooden Wagon, respectively. I LOVE these wooden toys, such a great detail and quality.

Yumi's Blog said...

These homemade gift bags was so cool! I also want to learn how to make like that. Thanks for sharing.



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Fakharuddin40 said...

Thanks for sharing such nice homemade gifts. i like it because these gifts are beautiful and also durable.
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