Last weekend I mentioned this year's greener Christmas and my hope that we will be able to waste less on gift wrap. I know that I don't have time to make enough reusable gift bags to do all our gifts (plus I have a lot of stockpiled gift wrap to use up), but I did make a few for small gifts. I'm not an experienced sewer and am not really used to making things without a pattern, but I was able to eventually figure out how to make a simple drawstring gift bag. I think they're pretty cute and I was happy to be able to use some scrap fabric from my stash and add a little less to the landfill.
Here's a shot of two of the bags - one flat and one cinched up.
Rob's Yoga Journal magazine even has an article about gift wrap this month. They mention a website called Wrapsacks that sells reusable gift bags and lets you track them online - how cool is that?! They are also beautiful and very reasonably priced at $4-$10 each.
Other environmentally-friendly wrappings mentioned in the article are:
- Furoshiki (a Japanese method of fabric wrapping)
- Paper bags decorated with stencils or crayons
- Out of date maps or old sheet music
- Reused/repurposed vintage containers such as cigar, shoe or hat boxes
- Natural materials such as raffia, string or fabric instead of synthetic ribbon
- Natural gift box fillers such as leaves, straw, pine or shredded paper scented with essential oils
Happy wrapping!! If you have other creative ideas, please share!
1 comment:
Great ideas! My dad got a list like this from his job. He works for the EPA, so go figure.
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