The 2 minute gift bag - SO EASY!

Hi Everyone,

Well I just handed over 100 holiday toiletry bags for the South Okanagan Women in Need. (SOWINS) This wonderful, worthwhile charity approached me last season asking if I could come up with something to put the toiletries in, so I created these simple little bags. They just loved them so now I've done it 2 years in a row. The bags are used to hold a few nice smelling spa related things that are donated by the public and our local Body Shop store. They go to women in need in the Okanagan who cannot afford nice things for themselves around the holidays.

I called my quilting neighbour, Debi (I am so lucky to have a quilting neighbour!) and she joined me for an afternoon sew along yesterday. We got 50 of them together in about 3 hours of cutting, chatting and fun but it didn't seem like that long because time flew by. We each did a bunch more on our own that evening to round out the 100 bags needed. Now, a few of my Facebook friends have asked for the pattern, so here is a fun and simple tutorial. I'm telling you they are so easy! 

We dug through our stashes and used up every scrap of old holiday materials we could find. Some of the bags are different sizes depending on the scraps available, but generally here's the pattern…

CUT a piece of fabric 20" x 14" and sew a double 1/4" folded hem along the length of the piece. You can perfectly press this little double fold or simply eyeball it as you go. 

Once you have one long finished edge, FOLD the fabric in half right sides together with the finished edge on top and FOLD down one corner to insert the bag tie. CUT a 20" piece of ribbon, shoelace, cord or whatever your heart desires. FOLD it in half and insert the folded edge about 4" down on the bag. 

Fold the edge back up and sew the  last two sides of the bag securing the fold of the tie with a few back stitches along the way. Be sure to let the ends of the tie hang out the top of the bag so you don't sew over them when they are hiding inside the bag.

Voila! You are left with a super simple adorable little gift bag. You can make these for a local charity (but be sure they need them first!) or you can make them for your own gift giving. They are super simple and once you make a few, you'll be banging them out in under 2 minutes each. My son has received a few of these goodie filled fabric bags under the tree over the years and he now uses them to hold marbles, toy soldiers, trading cards and anything he wants to keep together in one spot.

So enjoy! Make them in any size you want to fit the gift and these little bags will solve all of your Christmas wrapping needs!