Another gift bag binge

In January I bought some remnants of Japanese fabric from KimoYes during a sale. In the last couple of  years my gift bag making has concentrated on cotton fabric, mostly with a Christmas theme. It's a long time since I added either Japanese or sari fabrics, both of which used to be a regular part of my gift bag making.

Last week, after a bit of a cleanup in my sewing room, I retrieved the remnants, cut them out and on Saturday I ironed, then machined them into 21 bags of varying sizes, mostly rather larger than A4 size.

Before I went to bed, I got out my container of ribbons and assigned an appropriate drawstring to each of them. Some were a bit rough and ready - a pair of shoestrings, several pieces of florist's ribbon and a pyjama cord amongst them. I really enjoy this process of reuse and appropriation.

One I used was a braid I remember from my childhood. My mother had a lot of it in a couple of colours. I think the other one was either yellow or green. I last used it, I think, on clothes for either my own children, or my grandchildren. There is still about 8" left after I added it as a draw cord for one of these bags.

On Sunday I added the cords, knotting the ends together where there was a double drawstring. Then began the hunt for things to act as stoppers on the single drawstrings, to ensure the cords don't retreat into the gusset. The shape of each piece of fabric determines whether it has a double or single drawstring. If the fabric folds with two side-seams it is easy to leave the top gusset with an opening on either side - so two drawstrings pulling in opposite directions. If the fabric folds with only one side seam it only has one drawstring.

The collection here shows a knotted pyjama cord, a ribbon ended with cowry shells, a single nylon(top left to right) ribbon ended with a wired flower from a hat. Bottom left to right is a dressing gown cord, shoelaces and a ribbon ended with a wooden bead. 

Here we have the 1950s braid, a simple double narrow black ribbon and a single black ribbon ended with a couple of gum nuts painted with gold glitter paint.

 

While I try to stick to natural fibres for most of my stitching and clothing, I am hugely admiring of Japanese fabric, most of which is synthetic. The colours and designs are fabulous, as is texture and polish. 

The average material cost of each bag is $3.40.     I expect they will be used several times over. Making them gives me great pleasure on many fronts.

 I think I'll look at the pile a bit longer before putting them away ready for when I need to wrap a present.