Nobody enjoys a beautifully wrapped gift more than I do!  At times, my family become very irritated with me  inflicting that on their lives. When Christmas comes, I want packages to look like we gave some thought and care into not only selecting the gifts but in the presentation as well.  One of my dearest friends told me about a store in a little town she had often been in. They took great care in the wrapping of any gifts and had a signature look. If you received a gift from there, it seemed marvelous before you ever opened it, because of the lovely presentation. That is the way I like to think of gifting! It’s enjoyed before it is ever opened.

Kitchen towel turned into reusable gift bag!

Yet, here’s the rub. Holiday after holiday there is an enormous amount of paper that goes to the trash. It seems like such a waste. I have often thought about using something which would be reusable; not for saving money, but to limit my part in contributing to landfills.

When one of my daughters mentioned something along these lines, I jumped at the chance to finally get going on  the idea of reusable wrapping. Several days after Christmas she called and told me she had found a store getting rid of Christmas fabric for 99 cents a yard. She went home with 30 yards of fabric, and no idea what to do.  We decided we would make some kind of bags, but had no clue as to what sizes we wanted to make. I searched online to see if I could find any ideas for good sizes, but only found small bags. Sizes and styles were still undetermined.

A kitchen towel made a great sized bag!

We had decided to have our family holiday late, and it gave me the opportunity to try something out! I had purchased some colored holiday dish towels for some projects that never got done. I decided to fold one in half and it looked like a descent size! I stitched a hem along the top edge to run ribbon through, stitched the sides, ran the ribbon and I was done. This actually turned out to be the perfect size for several gifts I had. Several bags later, I was done with my “wrapping.”  I admit there was a learning curve, and sewing over the existing hems on the towels was a challenge. By the time I had enough to use, I had come up with several tricks.

Instead of a bunch of individually wrapped gifts, there were usually several little gifts inside one bag. We wondered if the lack of individual gifts would detract from the overall feel of gift opening. It did not!  Cleanup was a breeze, and we are ready to make more sizes, colors and styles!  The bonus — for those who lack the best fine motor skills, it allows them to easily wrap their gifts!

If you are interested, let me know. We can talk more about this!

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!