Gift Bag (mini sewing tutorial)

Here are a few more January projects.

On the day of my Dad's birthday party, I was on the phone telling my Mother how I hadn't wrap my Dad's birthday gift and I didn't know what my DH did with our wrapping paper. She said plastic walmart bags are considered gift wrap (at least my brother thinks it is). I did consider looking around for a plastic bag to toss the gifts in but then I remembered that my MIL gave me her walmart smock. My MIL saves EVERYTHING and she gave it to me and said she thought maybe I would be able cut it up and use the fabric for something. She said if I didn't find a use for it I should at least pull off the buttons and use them for a project in the future. I wish I could be a bit more like her! I never think to pull off buttons before tossing out our very worn out clothing. After thinking about that smock I ran up to my fabric junk box and pulled it out. A few cuts and a couple seams and I came up with a walmart gift wrap (a greener version than my brother's) the bag is washable and reusable.




Here is how I did it.

I noticed the bottom was missing buttons and that the top would be very open without adding a button. Because of that I cut the bottom off including one button so I could sew across and have my gifts stay inside. It did originally have one more button than the picture above shows. I popped it off to use at the top.

Doing this also put the words how may I help you in the center.

I then cut the arms off making the sides straight and making it more bag shaped.

I didn't take picture of the last few steps. I was in a hurry because the birthday party was only a couple hours away. All I did to finish it is sew across the bottom and up both sides. I made handles out of the left over material from the bottom of the smock (or maybe I used the sleeves I don't remember anymore this was a few months ago). I attached the handles added a button to the top and stitched up a quick loop (fastest way I could think of to make a button hole).

Here is the finished bag.

And a view of the back. My Dad seemed to be more excited about the bag than he was with the gifts inside the bag (note to self handmade creative gift wrapping is a must do from now on).

After making the bag I noticed I still had time before I had to leave for the party and I had more gifts to wrap (my SIL and Sister both had birthdays they celebrated with my Dad). I ran back into my junk box and found several cut off jeans (I always use my old jeans legs to make jeans and shorts for my girls). I sewed the bottom shut (not a new idea one I saw this on a TV show (think it was called Home) back in the 90's. I have made many jean totes over the years because it is something I can make them in about 5 minutes. When I was digging in my junk box I also found a very worn out belt my son wore out (very frayed an shabby looking) and with that I found a belt that came with a pair of my pants (I don't think I ever wore the belt with the pants I am sure that is the reason it was in the junk box). Two belts, Two jean cut offs, and about 10 minutes of time and I had some gift wrap for my Sister and SIL. At the party they also talked more about the gift wrap and how they planned to use the tote bags more than the gifts inside (note to self in a jam a bag makes a good gift for my family). Below is a picture of them. They are not anything great but worked for a quick gift wrap. It has also encouraged me to give up traditional gift wrap. I don't think I have wrapped anything with paper so far this year.
Please forgive me if this was hard to read or understand. It is late and I am very tired. I don't want to wait till tomorrow to post because I am committed to keeping up with my blogging. I will try to type my next post earlier in the day.

OH! I almost forgot to tell you I posted a simple sewing tutorial on my bouncing buttons blog I plan to put my tutorials on that blog, use this blog for my finished projects and craft talk, and my school N such blog for homeschooling and children projects. If it becomes too much I guess I can think about combining them. I think the 3 blogs might work best for me.