greencraft

yule craft: I'm definitely not proud of our pile of Whole Foods paper bags. But it's OK because they are the perfect weight to sew gifts into. Yes, you read that right. And they have handles. The fun of this greencraft is that you can use bags or sheets of paper right out of your recycling bin and you don't need any tape or glue, just a sewing machine -- although it would be doable with needle, thread, and strong fingers, one of which wears a thimble. Or holes could be punched and yarn woven in and out. There'd be lots of ways to do this if a person thought about it long enough.

Cut down one side of the paper bag. Place the right sides together matching the bag handles. Draw yourself lines as a guide to sew on. Cut about an inch around the outside of the lines.

            Zig-zag or straight stitch to make a new, much cuter bag. Trim edges.

Newspaper can replace the ubiquitous tissue paper. An easy tie made with twine strung with paper circles can be the closure. This bag can be used many times. Notice how the light changed -- the sun came out for a minute!

For a one-time use, just sew straight across the top of the bag, decorating however you like. This way, it'll need to be torn or cut open, but the gift will be totally secure. Sun went back under the clouds, just FYI. And make sure the gift is inside the bag before you sew it closed . . . which is what I just didn't do . . . go here for another way to use this idea!

Also posted at Whip Up -- a fabulous site with ideas, books and a new 2011 calendar! Thanks, Kathreen, for showing my project. And an Apartment Therapy site, Ohdeedoh. And see what Julie did here!