more on christmas

These are 4 of the 6 gift bags I made for Sister Suzy's gifts she wanted to give. As I was contemplating on how to wrap the gifts I had a stroke of brilliance and decided to make draw-string bags to put everything in. (I didn't have enough gift bags in my stash.) Sister Suzy was in love with the idea when I demonstrated how it all went together. I apologize for some fuzzy photos I think I was to close.



I fiddled around with size based on the size of afghan. I added 4 inches to the width and 3 inches to the length after making a prototype that I thought was too tight. This will make 2 bags.



What you need: 3/4 yard of material in whatever holiday material you bought on clearance several years ago after the holidays. Thread in a complementary color. (See Mom, I don't use white for everything! LOL) Rotary cutter, mat, ruler, scissors, pins, small safety pin, iron and board, sewing machine and button-hole presser foot. I think that's it!

Square up your fabric. Cut a piece 2 1/4 inches off the folded side which should give you a piece 4 1/2 inches by 27 inches. Cut this piece into three strips of 1 1/2 inches.



Turn your 1 1/2 strips 90 degrees of each other, off-set a little bit and pin



Sew and trim seam allowances to 1/4 inch. Press open.



Fold the strip and 2 large pieces in half and iron.



To make the draw-string fold the edges to the middle.



Fold in two and sew shut.



I don't normally pin making draw-strings, but I needed my hands free to use the camera.



Cut the draw-string in two.



Unfold a large piece measure 1 1/4 inches from selvage edge at the fold. Make a button-hole about 1/2 inch long using whatever method your sewing machine calls for. Cut the button-hole open.



Fold the selvage edge in 1 inch and pin. The button-hole should be centered between the selvage edge and the fold line. Sew it down. To pin or not to pin, I probably do more pinning than most people because my machine feeds the two pieces of fabric at different rates. I pin and stretch the fabric while sewing.



Using the small safety pin, hook one end of the draw-string and feed it through the button-hole. Even up the ends of the draw-string and tie a knot. Finished! Rinse and repeat for other piece of fabric.



Voila! Two draw-string gift bags!



So this is what we ended up with, except the DVD with Sister Suzy introducing some favorite Christmas clips and a greeting. The DVDs were being burned while I was taking photos. And best of all, Sister Suzy is very pleased with the results of our effort of making Christmas gifts that were within what we had to spend.

Have a good day!

Judy