Monday, November 30, 2020

Bags and Bags

Drawstring fabric gift-bags continue to be de rigueur around here, and I got an early start this year due to a couple of circumstances, the first of which was Jeni/In Color Order announcing a Lined Drawstring Bag Sew Along. And yes, I've made oodles of them over the years, but the sew along encouraged me to make more.

Jeni does a very thorough sew along, and in addition to providing a brand new video on how to make one of her bags, offers helpful Tips for Choosing Fabrics for Drawstring Bags. So if you're new to her patterns, she's got you covered.

In the last couple of weeks I've made five, one using Jeni's original pattern, and the others all from her expansion pattern, some with boxed corners, some without:

  • (left to right) Peek-A-Boo Lining Project Bag, The Original Tiny Bag, Easy Going Two Fabric Project Bag. 



  • Mini Accent Everything Bag


  • Easy Going Two Fabric Project Bag

Then, we had a three-generation family Zoom event last weekend. For years, this family group has celebrated Christmas together weeks before the actual holiday, quite often on Thanksgiving weekend. Anyway, the plan this year was to gift each other ornaments (mailed ahead). I decided to make hand-sewn gift-bags for each one, and since I was mass-producing (16-6" bags) I went with the pattern by Svetlana/Sotak Handmade. Svetlana has a growing YouTube channel, and among her videos it one to make her drawstring bags! It's so easy to adapt this pattern to any size bag as I did for mine. Svetlana also has a tutorial for the bags on her blog if you prefer that. Either way, they are quick and easy.

Funny thing. Invariably when I gift in a handmade bag, I get the standard 'thank you' for the gift of course; then that's almost always followed by, 'Can I keep the bag?' 

4 comments:

  1. You've been so busy! Love all your bags, you chose such cute fabrics for them too :)

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  2. your bags are always fantastic! I still have the one you gifted me something in years ago! it's as special to me as the gift itself

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  3. How nice that you had a purpose in mind for making all those bags. Wow! Good for you to mass produce like that. It's great that you gave family members an ornament that can be stored in the bag... or the bag maybe used for something else. Non-sewists can always find a way to use a bag, unlike those of us who make them and don't have enough ways to use all those we make! I've never made a drawstring bag, but if an occasion arises where I can use one, I will sure keep this great blog post in mind!

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