Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Hi frostie

Mine were simple - I started trying to do a drawstring thing (like we used to use for PE kit at school!) but I just couldn't find a pattern than worked easily and they all ended up a bit of a shambles. That was for Mr Cheery's birthday in August.

This time round I kept it really simple and didn't use a pattern at all. Just a rectangle of fabric, folded and hemmed at the opposite short ends, then folded in half (inside out) to hem up each side. I folded a long piece of ribbon in half, and put the fold about an inch or so down from the top, sewn in with the hem. Then turned inside out, and voila! Really simple rectangle bag with a hemmed top, and a ribbon sewn into the seam. Pop present in, tie ribbon in a bow.

Let me see if I can find a picture so you can see what I mean...

Cheery_Daff

Not sure how illustrative any of those are, sorry! Will take another pic, hang on...

Cheery_Daff

This should show you - basically I kept them as simple as I could because I wanted to make quite a few! I've got an overlocker, but if I didn't I wouldn't have bothered making the inside seams neat - I'm far too slapdash for that I'm afraid!

Karmacat

Ah!  That last one says it all, Cheery, thank you for keeping going - as you say, you folded the ribbon in half and caught it when you sewed up one edge of the bag - so then you can loop it round the bag, as tight or as loose as you like, and it won't come loose or disappear under the sofa, no matter what you do to it.  Brilliant!   And they're such pretty fabrics!

frostie101

Thank you for the info and pictures. Will be making some of these. 

Viking_mfw

Thanks for the instructions Cheery! I ordered some sale Christmas fabric to make bags for next year but hadn't figured out how I was going to do them so this is perfect!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, glad you're going to make some too frostie and viking! Once I'd settled on the method they were actually pretty quick to do. And it was great to finally use some of that fabric- some of it I've been carting round for 20 years so it's about time it got used for something, even if it's not festive in itself

Tescodealqueen

Love these bags Cheery. I downloaded a template after seeing  something on the Kirsty Homemade Christmas programme but it all seemed a bit complex. I think I could have a go at yours first to see how it goes. And if I start now I have twelve months to figure it out. Thanks for the idea

Karmacat

I should have said, I'll have a go at these too (when I've got to the last item on my Crafting List, which is "learn my sewing machine").  I have loads and loads of fabric, and if you make the bags different sizes, they can be used for all sorts of different presents - some of the things I bought this year were physically quite a size - a panettone in a tin, for instance.  Even oven gloves are bigger than you might expect, once you start to wrap them

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, glad you're going to have a go too KC (and good to see you TDQ!) Yes KC, it's great to have lots of different sizes - and actually because you're trying the tops you need a rather bigger bag than you think for each present! I didn't bother measuring, and because I've only seen Mr Cheery so far, and we tend to buy each other lots of smaller things, the little bags came in really handy. 

I confess the absolute best thing about them is that it only took 10 minutes to wrap his entire stash of presents!

Snowing this morning! We've had to postpone our walk with friends (literally the only thing we had planned for this holiday season!) But we're going on Saturday instead. I've not even bothered to get dressed yet