Christmas Finish Postscript

There's no W.i.P. Wednesday this week, so I thought I'd tally up the Christmas finishes I haven't shared yet.

Ruby Star Wrapping Pillowcase Pouches - This pattern saved the day for me. Though I had planned on making oodles of fabric gift bags this year, I missed my goal by a long shot. But on Christmas Eve, when I finally got around to wrapping my gifts for my family, I realized that not only did I not have as many fabric bags as I had planned, but I also ran out of paper ones. Thank goodness pillowcase pouches are pretty quick! I think I even was working so quickly that I forgot to take pics of a couple.

Drawstring Bags - I could not not make one for daughter dear, the queen of fabric gift bags! It was The Artist Bag (16" tall x 14.5"), in blue and gray snowflake dots.

Infinity Scarf - I mentioned last week that this item wasn't very photo friendly, and truly, I was afraid the project was a fail. Even though the fabric was a lovely voile, I wasn't sure it draped well enough. But once my daughter-in-law-to-be slipped it on, I knew it was fine. It looked just darling on her.

(fabric was cut 11"x42"; shown here looped once)

Zakka Frame Purses - I made three for gifts, two with the pleats, and one without, just to try it. Unfortunately, I only managed to take a finished picture of one of them.

Frame Purse - For this little one, I actually drafted a pattern to fit my frame, and I love its unique shape.

And lastly, in addition to running out of gift bags, I also ran out of tags! On Christmas Eve! So I cut into a quilted scrap from the stocking I made recently, and quickly stitched up some tags.

I'll definitely be making some of these again!

For next W.i.P. Wednesday, I hope to also report on the couple of projects I did not get done!

Linking up with finish it up Friday.

Ruby Star Wrapping :: Pillowcase Pouch

One thing I love about sew-alongs such as Ruby Star Wrapping {and Zakka!} is seeing what others do with the same pattern. Case in point: seeing Amy/Diary of a Quilter share her Pillowcase Pouches made me want to run right to my sewing room!

When I finally did get there, I started off with a couple of basic pouches. Great idea Amy had to do French seams, and it barely added any time at all, but made a really nice finish. And for families that like to reuse bags (paper or otherwise) year after year, this simple tip will likely prolong their usefulness.

The first thing I learned making the Pillowcase Pouch was to keep in mind the directional nature of the fabric, which you can see illustrated above and below. 

I discovered that for a very flat gift, you really don't need to fold the top over, and with a festive reindeer accent strip, who really even needs a ribbon?

On my last pouch, I used a companion fabric for the top several inches. And since my fabric wasn't quite wide enough for my gift, I decided to add contrasting side insets. . .

then small gussets at the base helped accommodate the thickness of the gift.

So for the little amount of time spent on these handmade wrappings, I got four presents ready to gift, and enjoyed a much needed dose of sewing room time.

Fabric in picture order: from Riley Blake's "Christmas Candy", Kate Spain's "12 days of Christmas", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by Marisa and Creative Thursday (reindeer from Kate Spain's "Flurry" panel), and lastly, "Brrr!" by Laurie Wisbrun. Linking up with Ruby Star Wrap-Along and the Ruby Star Wrapping Contest.