Last year after once again feeling dismay at the massive pile of paper on Christmas morning I finally decided to make the switch over to cloth bags. I bought a big stack of Christmas fabrics on sale (feeling ever so smart for planning ahead and getting them at 70% off ;) ) Then they sat on my sewing shelf for a whole year. In November I started to really think that it was about time. In early December I made a couple ;) I made the rest (35 or so) in the 2 days before Christmas, staying up until ohhhhh 2 am Christmas eve finishing them up ;)
It was so worth it tho! It felt amazing to see them all sitting there under the tree. Even more amazing to fold them all up and put them away for next year. My husband even made them with me :) He did all of the ironing for me enabling me to just sew sew sew as fast as I could.
The blue gift above is a playsilk - a gift from one of the kids. We often use the play silks for wrapping gifts -I love that it's become second nature to just wrap gifts in cloth. My oldest still feels that the ripping of the paper is the most important part. I didn't think to use cloth when she was young. I understand her feelings tho - I'll admit to stifling some of those feelings myself, *but* how can we not? I mean really - how sustainable is it to just throw away that much paper ? It just doesn't make sense. With so many problems in the world today - Re-using things is what makes sense. So many issues in the world today are beyond our control - this is such a simple thing to do. It's what really feels good - the kind of good that doesn't have guilt attached with it ;) I like that kind better.
And next year? Oh man - wrapping the presents is going to be *soooooo* easy! And every time I wrap a gift in one of these bags I'll get that lovely feeling of knowing that I've done a good thing. *And* hopefully I'm passing that value on to my children - changing things one step at a time.
I love this idea! I think maybe I should start looking now for fabric as well. Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
ReplyDeleteI feel a little silly now for thinking about doing it for so long before actually doing it ;) It really wasn't such a big deal - sewing a gift bag is ridiculously easy - I didn't put a drawstring or anything - just a very basic bag. The serger made it even faster, but I don't think I'd have finished seams otherwise since really how much will they need to be washed ? Even if it's a transitional thing and you start by making say 10 of them - that really takes no time at all :)
ReplyDeleteI was even thinking of cutting with pinking shears and sewing wrong sides together for the sides and bottom. The top could have bric-a-brac or lace or whatever. Now you've got me thinking....
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