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Christmas Bags, who knew they would be such a hit at our family Christmas last year.  I remember having to remind everyone that the bags stayed here, as they were trying to sneak them out the door. Guess what everyone is getting this year for Christmas – Yep, you guessed it, their own set of Christmas Bags!

Christmas Bags You Ask?

What are they exactly? Christmas bags are my latest sewing project to save time, money, and energy – not to mention paper waste at Christmas.  After all, these bags are going to be used in our family for years to come! I purchased a bunch of Christmas material at JoAnne’s Fabrics, mainly because it was inexpensive and I simply couldn’t resist the cute designs. I didn’t really have a clue as to what I was going to do with it, but as they say in the sewing world – “when in doubt buy the material”. Okay, maybe I made that up. But really, you can never have too much cute fabric! I bought four different patterns; two yards each, and since they were on sale, it was about $4 for each one.  A grand total of $16.00!

Actually Prepared for Once

This was the first Christmas I was actually prepared; more so than ever before in the history of Christmas! Shocker, I know. But it’s true. Each year, my husband and I agree on a budget for the family.  Then we use a secret shared Pinterest Board to pin our wish list to.  It is so much easier than in the past, our kids used to create a word document with pictures and I had to hunt down the links to find the items. Now, they just pin the link with who needs the gift and I just click and buy.  Easy peasy! The tricky part is trying to make sure we all know who is getting what for whom. But, the nice thing is, since we pin to this board all throughout the year, we have a wide variety of things to choose from. No more last minute, “Gee, what do I want?” issues for us!

Get those Gifts Ordered

Usually, I really have a hard time actually spending the money, because it’s a lot of money to spend all at once.  My husband would most likely disagree with that statement, but it’s true…. I usually do my spending in small doses – that way it’s not quite as noticeable (did I just say that out loud? Oops!)  Can you relate? So, with that said, I usually try to space out my purchases, to avoid my big money panic attacks.  But, I realized last year that spacing them out the year before only hurt me; because I would be stressed out about getting my gifts in time for getting them all wrapped.  So last year, I ordered most of my gifts all in the same week! And it was amazing to be done and ready to enjoy the wrapping process, as well as go to bed at a decent hour on Christmas Eve!

Wrapping Room Conversion

So, what made this year so easy?  My sewing room has a huge sewing table that I built it using three tabletops and several legs from IKEA.  I also stuck the furniture sliders on the bottoms of the feet, to be able to move the table around as needed. I’ll share more on my sewing/craft room in a future post.  My sewing room became my wrapping room!  I made sure to let everyone know that my sewing room was off limits.  It’s just my hubby and me living here, but there is the occasional visit from the kiddos.  Thus, I placed each person’s gifts in separate stacks – utilizing the area under my sewing table and it worked like a charm.  As I was able, I would run up and wrap 3-5 presents at a time, which I was able to enjoy without getting wrapping burn out. Something, I am sure you are aware, is the worst thing to have at Christmas!

Wrapping Odd Shaped Gifts

However, as I was wrapping, I noticed that some gifts were not wrapping paper friendly.  Meaning,  “how the heck am I going to wrap this, that, or the other odd shaped item?” Dolls, big toys, and a large smoker grill, for example, are not easy to wrap. Wrapping paper, ribbon and tape for such large items is very expensive – and the trash, ugh. So, I had to come up with something reasonable and quickly.

Simple and Cute Solution

So, that is how the Christmas Bags came to be.  I had the material, and the time, since I had already gotten most of the gifts.  Needless to say, the bags were very easy and quick to sew – especially utilizing my serger.  I also used my sewing machine to make the boxed ends and add the cording to make the drawstring to close the bags.  As for the cording, I do recommend using a higher quality cording, usually found by the curtain rods section.  It is much smoother and easier to open and close the bags. As for the smoker grill, I simply placed it in the corner and covered it with a Christmas Blanket.  See my Christmas Bag Tutorial Here.

Happy Sewing!

Sherri