Christmas in... almost August?

Well it's not really July much longer and every month it is getting closer to the holiday season. I have been wanting to blog about this for awhile so I finally decided to JUST DO IT! :)

What is one thing millions, maybe billions of people spend money on every year? Well yes gifts, presents, whatever you call them. But how about what those gifts go in?




Ahh yes wrapping paper. What a waste of money, resources, trees.... Most people, especially children just rip through paper and in the trash it goes. All of the above is wasted for a couple minutes viewing of color. Sure there are some people who carefully peel off the tape and fold the paper away for another day. But that's not many and paper doesn't last long or hold up to much.

I had been wanting to do something about paper wrapping usage for quite some time but never got around to doing anything about it, until last year. The path I decided to take with this was fabric bags. I had seen them online before but really didn't want to pay the money for something I could so easily do at home.

One of the worries I think people have with this is the Santa issue. But I find that is really not a problem. I just tell my children that we have our special bags that we made and every year Santa comes in and fills our special bags with presents. That paper wrapping is wasteful and Santa wants save the trees! Why not! If we want our kids to be conscious we have to teach them to be so! It may sound weird to others but not to a child who has grown up with this. And I quite like the new tradition we are creating. The same special bags to look forward to every year. I even thought with extra fabric from the bags I could make some clothing for their special Waldorf dolls (Little L doesn't have one yet but he will!). And then at holiday time their babies can have matching outfits to their special Christmas bags.

The bags don't need to be fancy. Just a few bags in different sizes. Of course you can make them fancy if you prefer! But I just wanted to get some done asap so we had them.

Here's our bags! I pulled them out of the closet just for you guys! XD They are a bit wrinkly as the weren't folded but all bundled up inside the biggest bag..

If I had been thinking I would have taken pictures of the making process to blog about it later but oh well...

I will try to explain as best I can with no instructive pictures. Except for this silly one I just whipped up. I am awful with instructions of sewing so sorry in advance! And I am a really lazy about sewing when I can get away with it. As you can tell below!

Decide the size of the bag (no measurements taken I just eyed it) from yard size pieces and either cut the yard in half or more. Except for the big one which was a full yard. Take the first piece you are going to make into a bag and flip it over so you are looking at the underside of the fabric.

Then fold the fabric in half. For this particular bag the fold was at the bottom of the bag. Then sew up each side one at a time (STEP 1 and 2), leaving about three inches not sewn towards the top. Fold down that upper portion (the piece you didn't sew) all the way around and pin it about two inches down leaving an inch on the other side of the pins. You can leave less I am just comfortable with an inch (and again this are not exact measurements as I just eyed things). 

 Then sew (STEP 3) along that pin line all the way around.

Last step is to thread a ribbon of your choice through that space you just made at the top and  turn the bag right side out. Voila your done!

Now I know this post has been all about Christmas/Holiday bags but this certainly applies to birthdays and other occasions too!

At times when you are giving gifts to someone that isn't in your household you would then have to make the decision as to whether or not you let the gift receiver keep the bag or if you want it back. I see no issue in asking for it back. You can remind them that if it were paper they probably would have just trashed it anyway! Unless they are one of those rare paper savers....

I hope this inspires someone to try this! There are many ways you could make bags and as I said before you can certainly put more time into yours and make them prettier or more professional. I just wanted something quick and easy at the time and they worked great.

And just because I feel like saying, yes we are Pagan and yes we celebrate Christmas. Thats how me and the daddy were brought up and since everyone around us celebrates too we still do. But we enjoy Yule as well. I think it is a win win! We just get to celebrate more! ;D