Anyone do reusable gift bags to wrap Christmas presents with?

[happysmileylady]

How about your extended family?

I am considering sewing up some gift bags using a pattern similar to this

http://www.simplicity.com/p-1618-crafts.aspx

Or this

http://www.simplicity.com/p-3038-holiday-crafts.aspx

Does anyone else do anything like this?  I am trying to figure out how it works as far as the reusable part.

Do you just take the bags back after the gifts are "unwrapped?"  Do you rotate bags through your family?  I do currently save any paper/plastic gift bags that people give my kids gifts in and reuse those as needed.  When I do that, I give the gift, usually to a niece or nephew since the bag usually has little kid designs on it, I don't expect the bag back.  It would seem weird to me to ask for the bag back.  But then again, among my family, no one would be offended. 

I am also considering gifting a set of bags to each of the families in my family, so that everyone has them.  In that case, just sharing the bags among the whole family might not be weird either, that way no one has to ask for theirs back.

Obviously for my own kids, for their Christmas and birthday gifts, it wouldn't be an issue.  Of course there's the Santa thing.....

I dunno, how does it work in your family?

[Ellien C]

I used them - no pattern - just pillow-case style. But only within my own immediate family. Each of us has a theme - flowers, snowmen, teddy bears so I don't need tags.

If I wanted to use them with extended family, I might not ask for the bag back, but would take it if offered.

For kids B-day presents, DH gave me permission to use his extensive bandanna collection and I'm thrilled not to get them back!

[AllyRae]

We use cloth wrapping paper at home, so for any gifts unwrapped at our house, that's what we use.  We do it for birthdays too...I got so sick of all the waste with paper that gets put on, then ripped off and thrown away.  Nobody I know uses reusable wrapping paper, so I know it wouldn't be appreciated nor returned to me, so I save up all of the brown packing kraft paper that comes in shipments I get (usually from when I buy things off amazon. LOL!), and just wrapped all of the gifts opened at someone else's house in the brown paper, with a silk flower and raffia to decorate it. 

[AllyRae]

Oh, and for the Santa thing, we already told the kids that we were going to leave our "cloth wrapping paper" out for Santa to borrow. :D

[aratiaw]

I/we don't, but it's something I keep meaning to do. Personally I would use cheap or upcycled fabric and/or keep them very simple (no appliques, etc.). Or for something that took more effort to make, factor it in as part of their gift. Either way, I would then not expect to receive them back; rather, I'd hope that the person would reuse the bag themselves next year. If they insisted on giving it back, I would obviously not try to force them to keep it!

At times I've considered getting some tags made up to sew in, with "reusable gift bag" or similar. It might encourage people to keep using them.

[just_lily]

A few years ago my MIL started giving all of her gifts in reusable grocery bags that you can pick up for $1 at the grocery store.  Not the prettiest solution, but practical, easy, and cheap. 

[QuiltingMagwi]

My mom has done this for years. (Like since the 60s) It has become a big tradition.  She uses cheap fabric for all the gifts that we open at her house, that way she can snag the bags back and reuse them.  Then she makes 1 or 2 very beautiful ones each year, with hand painted snowman and such and uses those to wrap gifts that she sends to our house.  Its kinda part of the present, but then we are building up our reusable bag collection so that we can use them for our own 'in house' family Christmas. (and then we can snag the bags back from our kiddos!)

I've started making them too.  Pillowcase style, I just fold over the lip of the bag, sew a hem and thread some ribbon thru it to make the drawstring.  Not to fancy, and I still use little paper note cards as tags.

[happysmileylady]

Originally Posted by Ellien C 

I used them - no pattern - just pillow-case style. But only within my own immediate family. Each of us has a theme - flowers, snowmen, teddy bears so I don't need tags.

If I wanted to use them with extended family, I might not ask for the bag back, but would take it if offered.

For kids B-day presents, DH gave me permission to use his extensive bandanna collection and I'm thrilled not to get them back!

I really like the idea of using a theme to identify who the gift goes to. 

Originally Posted by aratiaw 

I/we don't, but it's something I keep meaning to do. Personally I would use cheap or upcycled fabric and/or keep them very simple (no appliques, etc.). Or for something that took more effort to make, factor it in as part of their gift. Either way, I would then not expect to receive them back; rather, I'd hope that the person would reuse the bag themselves next year. If they insisted on giving it back, I would obviously not try to force them to keep it!

At times I've considered getting some tags made up to sew in, with "reusable gift bag" or similar. It might encourage people to keep using them.

Making it a part of the gift is kinda what I am thinking about doing. 
 

Originally Posted by QuiltingMagwi 

My mom has done this for years. (Like since the 60s) It has become a big tradition.  She uses cheap fabric for all the gifts that we open at her house, that way she can snag the bags back and reuse them.  Then she makes 1 or 2 very beautiful ones each year, with hand painted snowman and such and uses those to wrap gifts that she sends to our house.  Its kinda part of the present, but then we are building up our reusable bag collection so that we can use them for our own 'in house' family Christmas. (and then we can snag the bags back from our kiddos!)

I've started making them too.  Pillowcase style, I just fold over the lip of the bag, sew a hem and thread some ribbon thru it to make the drawstring.  Not to fancy, and I still use little paper note cards as tags.

See, with all of my family, all gifts are opened in the presence of the gift giver.  My parents and siblings, as well as my ILs all live in the same area.  We do Christmas eve at one house, usually my ILs, where MIL, FIL, SIL, BIL, and us are all there, have dinner and open gifts.  So I would be there to snag the bags back, it just seems weird to me.  The same thing with my parents, that's usually Christmas day, so we have Christmas morning with our kids, then around noon pack up the gifts for all my nieces and nephews (we don't do a gift exchange among the adult siblings and spouses) and everyone is there for Christmas dinner and gift giving.  So again, I would be there to snag them back if I wanted.

What i am kinda thinking now is perhaps picking up a bunch of Christmas fabric on clearance after the holidays, then spending the year making a set of bags for each of the families, and making that part of their gift.  That way, everyone's got a set, no more wrapping paper trash at either of the houses for the holidays.

Oh, Ally, I like the "leaving our cloth wrapping paper out for Santa" thing.  Though, when I was a kid, our Santa never wrapped the gifts from him.  Perhaps that was because there were 4 of us and "Santa" brought 5 (small) gifts for each....20 gifts is a lot to wrap overnight!:lol:

[treeoflife3]

I don't use BAGS, but I am using fabric this year.  I'm using a mixture of the furoshiki method and standard wrapping like you would with paper and just using ribbon to hold it on.

[bigteamug]

Dec 6th is the saint's day for St. Nicholas (much of Europe used this day for when Santa would come to leave stuff for kids, and still do), you could come up with some kind of tradition of getting the paper to Santa around that time...also, the theme is a great idea - you could also have shaped felt tags that are a simple cookie cutter shape - snowman, star, whatever to use instead of trying to find cloth that matches your theme.

We have a fair amount of fabric - every year I swear that I'm going to sew it into bags - hasn't happened yet......;)  I just wrap it sloppily and put a ribbon around it.