Fabric Gift Bags Tutorial and 10 other fun packaging ideas

A  few years ago I started making fabric gift bags to use for Christmas. I love making these bags, they are so simple and just take a few minutes to whip up. We mainly use these within our family so we can use them year after year, but I also make some each year to package our jams and jellies in for gift giving. It’s such a small thing but it dresses up the gift so much. 

There are so many great ideas on wrapping and packaging gifts (I’ll link to a several others at the end of the post), but I wanted to share with you how I make fabric gift bags. You can make these any size you want but I’ll be giving measurements for a samll bag that will fit a half pint canning jar. When I make these assembly line fashion they take about 5 minutes each. 

How to make a fabric gift bag

Supplies
1 yard fabric
ribbon or rope
scissors
thread
pins
sewing machine

Cut your fabric in 9″x 11″ rectangles. You should be able to get 16 out of a yard of fabric. Make sure that you look at the pattern on the fabric and and that the 9″ is the height and the 11″ is the width. 

Flip the fabric over and iron down about a 1″ hem. 

Put a small button hole in the center of the fabric, just below the crease from ironing. 

Button holes are not that big of a deal when you have a button hole foot. If you don’t have one, you should get one, it’s well worth the small investement. Don’t forget to open the button hole once it’s sewn.

Zig zag across the top of the fabric. This will help keep the fabric from fraying. 

Now that all the prep work is done, you can sew the bag. Fold the fabric  in half and pin the long sides together. Sew them using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Make sure that the part you ironed is NOT folded over. 

Now, line up the seam into the middle of the bag (the bottom should still be open so it will be a tube at this point) and pin and stitch the bottom together using  a 1/4″ seams allowance.

Then, fold the hem down that you ironed earlier and stich all around the bottom of the hem. This will give you a casing to put your ribbon or rope through. 

I like to box the corners just a bit to make the bag look a little better. You don’t have to, if you don’ t like that look. If  you want to, just line up the bottom seam with the side seam. Since there isn’t a side seam on this bag, I just iron a little one in. 

Then line up your edge somewhere on your machine ( I used the 3/8 mark for these) and sew a line. Cut the corner off. 

Insert the ribbon or rope and fill with something amazing. 

More frugal gift wrapping ideas

Recycled Christmas Card Boxes from The Free Range Life

Dressed Up Canning Jars from Timber Creeek Farm

Colorful Paper Prints from Happy Deal Happy Day

Printable Paper Bow from Thrifty Jinxy

Drawstring Bag from One Creative Mommy

Free Wrapping Paper from Sweep Tight

Homemade Wrapping Paper from In the Playroom

DIY Curling Ribbon from This Simple Home

An Easy Gift Wrapping System from An Oregon Cottage

Handmade Christmas 2013 Gift Wrapping ideas from SchneiderPeeps

What are some of your favorite gift wrapping or packaging ideas? Please share them in the comments so we can all learn from them. 

Thanks for sharing with your friends!