Every year we make and gift around 30 bottles of wine and to gift these we have to buy gift bags, so this year I’ve decided to make reuseable bags. Wouldn’t it be great if the recipients kept and reused the bags to gift to someone else the following year. Nice thought.
Place your two patterned fabrics right sides together and pin. Be sure that the pieces point the same way if it’s a patterned fabric. Mark a line 12 inches from the bottom on both sides. Add an additional mark 1″ further up, again on both sides. Repeat this process on the lining fabric. Now sew a 1/4″ seam from the bottom mark on one side, down, across the bottom, and back up to the other lower mark. Backstitch at the bginning and end. You need to do this on the patterned fabric and the lining fabric. Now sew lines from the top of the bag on either side down to that second mark you made. Remembering again to backstitch at the beginning and end. Again, you need to do this on the patterned fabric and the lining fabric. Place your side seam against your bottom seam, lining them up carefully as shown. Mark 1.5″ from the point in the fabric. Sew a seam across the mark. Then repeat on the other side of the bag bottom. Trim off the excess. Repeat on the lining. Turn the patterned fabric right side out and place the lining (still inside out) inside it. Line up the openings left for the ribbon and pin down the centre. Draw a line (with a heat erasable marker) 1/2″ from the centre on both sides. Roll down the top of the bag, and if possible, remove the front section from your machine, this will allow you to slide the bag underneath your presser foot easily. Sew down both marked lines. Fold over 1/2″ at the top of both the lining and patterned fabrics and turn them in. Pin them together. Top-stitch around the top of the bag using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Take 48″ of ribbon and cut it in half. Thread the first piece through the front channel and then round and through the back channel. I just popped a safety pin into the end of the ribbon as this works really well, but everyone has their own method for feeding through fabric. Repeat with the other piece of ribbon, starting on the opposite side. You should end up with two ends on either side. Tie a knot in the end of each set of ribbons. By passing the ribbon through both sides, when you pull the ribbon with a bottle in the bag, it will gather around the neck of the bottle. Just another 28 to go!
