I’m not sure about you, but wrapping a gift has become a bit of a chore. Don’t get me wrong, I love finding and giving the perfect gift, but these days, I am that much more thrilled when the gift is from a local store that provides a wrapping service. I NEVER used to allow a store to wrap my gifts; now I quickly say, “Yes, please.”
Several years ago when I was out of tape, I reached for a random square baby blanket I had never used to wrap the gift. Loved that. So did the recipient. Since, I’ve been known to wrap gifts with kitchen towels, scarves and cut burlap. Why? It’s easy and the paper waste after a gift opening frenzy just makes me a bit sad. Plus, my kids are forever absconding with my tape. Not needing it, or scissors, adds happiness to the gift wrapping process.
Fabric wrapped gift, made from DIY patterned cotton fabric. Click for details. Image courtesy of Poppytalk.
Well, little did I know that the Japanese have been wrapping like this for eons. There are even entire books devoted to creative ways to use squares of fabric to easily wrap a gift — no matter the shape.
Jennifer Playford’s book is one of several that exist on the multiple ways to wrap a gift with fabric.
From Chewing the Cud’s fabric gift wrap line. Click for details.
More images from Chewing the Cud’s fabric gift wrap line. Click for details.
I’ve been able to find pre-made wrapping fabric for around $16 a square, which I actually think is a little steep. But, it’s done and if enough people start using them, chances are you will only need to buy a few and the recycling among friends will begin. There are several $10 sale options I found at Chewing the Cud, click here.
I’d love to credit this picture to it’s source, but I can’t find where it originated. How sweet is this though? A great way to wrap party favors for a wedding or even take away boxes from a restaurant. A restaurant that did this would inspire me to go back!
For the crafty, consider buying some fabric and cutting 28″ squares for a basic size. Keep 15″ squares on hand for small gifts, as well. Sew a seam around and voila! But, honestly, I bet there are plenty of fabrics that you could just cut and add No-Fray Spray to (click here if you have no idea what that is) and voila — gift wrap! As simple as this is, within a couple of hours, you could have enough fabric gift wrap to last an entire year.
With these fabric squares are on hand, you know you will want to use them to line bread baskets and more. In fact, look at what one 35″ square fabric can accomplish:
This piece of fabric will set you back $50. That’s expensive gift wrap. But, it’s fun to see all that you can do with it!
Honestly, I would never take the time to do all this, but again, it helps to imprint that we can do more with our wrapping than simply throw it away.
Anyone else suddenly want to go to France?
Last three images courtesy of UGUisU.
Here’s a video to show you how easy it is to wrap in fabric. Are you convinced? Happy wrapping!
