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Christmas DIY: Reusable Fabric Gift Bags

October 29, 2019 by Laura 5 Comments

Last Updated on January 31, 2021

It’s time to start Christmas crafting! These sweet, reusable fabric gift bags are just the ticket for adding some homemade thoughtfulness to a simple gift. I love how the metallic iron-on details add a touch of shiny glam to this easy sewing project. No need for wrappings that head straight to the landfill after the Holidays, these cute little gift bags can get reused year after year!

DIY Reusable Fabric Gift Bags. Simple sewing tutorial for Christmas. DIY Christmas gift bags. DIY Teacher gifts, treat bag sewing tutorial. Make these cute and functional fabric gift bags for Christmas and watch them get reused year after year. Eco-friendly DIY gift bags. #christmasdiy #sewingtutorial #christmascraft

This post contains affiliate links. Read more.

Amidst the total chaos that is my life right now I still managed to create one last crafty thing before we packed up and moved out of our old house. As I’m writing this, we are between homes since our new house won’t be ready for a couple more weeks. It’s been a tough transition for the kids, but we are all very excited about the new house!

As a point of interest, this is my 100th blog post! I’m amazed and grateful at how far this little blog has taken me, and I have so much bloggy goodness planned for the months to come!

Ok let’s craft!

I had these great cotton flannel fabrics from Stacked Fabric Company and they were just calling out to be made into Christmas goodie bags!

These little reusable Christmas gift bags are ideal for stuffing with a few sachets of tea, some homemade treats and a little note. Awesome as teacher gifts or re-usable advent calendar pouches or even to fancy-up a gift card. Honestly these little bags with be so handy this Christmas, I intend to make quite a few more!

DIY Reusable Fabric Gift Bags

What You Need:

Cute cotton flannel fat quarters
Metallic Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV)
Iron
Press Cloth
Sewing Machine
Thin Ribbon
Optional: Christmas dies and die cutter.

Note: You can also find HTV at Michael’s in the Cricut section. It comes in every colour!

HTV at Michael's

But HTV is also available on Amazon, and is less expensive there. ๐Ÿ™‚

I used my die cutter and a few Christmas-y dies to cut out some shapes to adorn these reusable fabric gift bags with.

Die Cutting HTV

What To Do:

Cut your fabric into 6.75″ x 18″ pieces. One fat quarter will yield 3 reusable fabric gift bags.

DIY Christmas gift bags

Fold down the top edges by about 1/4″ and iron them down towards the inside of the bag.

Making reusable fabric gift bags

Position your HTV cut outs where you’d like them, plastic film side up. Cover with a press cloth (just a piece of cotton fabric)  and heat press them until they are well adhered. (Be careful when you check for ‘doneness’ because the plastic will be hot!)

While the shapes are still warm, carefully peel off the plastic film. If you find the edges of the HTV are pulling up, go back and iron them again to make sure they stick!

Adhere some pretty Christmas images to your reusable fabric gift bags

Sewing Reusable Fabric Gift Bags

You’ll need to plan to leave a gap when you’re sewing the sides of the gift bags so that your ribbon has an exit point for the drawstring.

Here’s how I did it. Pin your bag right sides together. On one side seam, chalk or pin mark at 2.5″ and 3″ down from the folded top edge. That half inch space will be left un-sewn.

Making reusable fabric gift bags

Now straight-stitch both side seams, catching the top folded edges. I went back and did a zig zag stitch to prevent fraying. You could serge the edges too, I was just too lazy to drag out my serger! lol

sewing the side seams of diy reusable fabric gift bags for Christmas

Now fold down the top about 1.5″, making sure that your stitch line will fall below the gap for the drawstring.

fold down the top of your reusable fabric gift bag

Pin it in place, then flip the bag right side out to make sewing it a little easier. Stitch as close to the folded edge as you can.

Add another line of top-stitching about 1/2″ up from the first to create the casing for the drawstring.

Use a safety pin to thread your ribbon through the casing.

Use a safety pin to thread the ribbon through the casing

Christmas crafting for the win!

Make these cute DIY reusable fabric gift bags for Christmas with this easy sewing tutorial

Aren’t these so sweet?!

If you need some ideas of what to stuff them with, check out these posts from my continuing handmade gift series:
Part 1: 25 Christmas Gift Ideas to Make and Sew.
Part 2: 25 More Unique Handmade Gift Ideas.

You can also check out my Etsy shop here for more gift ideas! Embroidered letter ornaments are pretty popular Christmas gifts.

Simple sewing tutorial, DIY Christmas fabric gift bags

I’m planning to use these for the boys’ school teachers and piano teacher. Plus anyone else who falls into a similar category! ๐Ÿ™‚

DIY Reusable Fabric Gift bags. Stitch up a few of these simple Christmas gift bags and add some pretty metallic details for extra flair! Great for teacher gifts and gift exchanges. Handmade is always best!

Easy DIY Gift Bags Sewing Tutorial. Fill these cute bags with tea and other treats as a simple and thoughtful homemade gift idea for Christmas.

You can find more eco-friendly gift wrapping ideas in this post.

Now, on to the next crafty thing!

Happy Christmas Crafting!

Filed Under: Christmas, Crafts & DIYs, Holidays, Homemaking, Life, Sewing & Embroidery Tagged With: Christmas Crafts, crafts & diys, DIY Christmas Gift Bags, Reusable Fabric Gift Bags

Previous Post: « 12 DIY Halloween Decorations for Kids
Next Post: 25 Unique Handmade Gift Ideas for Christmas »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Amy says

    November 5, 2019 at 8:46 pm

    Oh I love this so much! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 12 Free Christmas Cross Stitch Patterns | The Yellow Birdhouse says:
    October 9, 2020 at 12:39 pm

    […] if you’re looking for more Christmas-themed DIY ideas, check out these posts: DIY Reusable Gift Bags ‘Be Merry’ Felt Banner 25 Unique Handmade Gift […]

    Reply
  2. 11 Amazing Teacher Gift Ideas to Show Your Appreciation says:
    November 8, 2019 at 12:47 pm

    […] out this post for DIY Reusable Fabric Gift Bags, perfect for gifting tea and […]

    Reply
  3. 25 Christmas Gift Ideas to Make and Sew | The Yellow Birdhouse says:
    October 31, 2019 at 12:05 am

    […] If you need an eco-friendly way to wrap your handmade gift, check out this DIY post for Reusable Fabric Gift Bags! […]

    Reply
  4. 8 Eco Friendly Gift Wrap Ideas - DIY Gift Wrap Solutions says:
    October 30, 2019 at 4:21 pm

    […] recently created this simple DIY reusable fabric gift bag tutorial for Christmas. It has pretty metallic details and can be used year after […]

    Reply

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Hey There!

I’m Laura, a busy work at home mama to two amazing boys. I help moms live their best crafty life, whether that’s with fun DIY projects or running an online shop. My passion is crafting with wool felt, but you’ll find a little bit of everything on the blog since I’m an unstoppable crafter and I love to share! Read More…

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