2 DIY fabric Gift wraps (How to wrap your Gifts with any fabric)

This post is about using fabric as gift wrapping material – the reusable kind.

The unwrapping of the present I get is always the most satisfying thing for me. But the paper wraps which gets dumped in the waste basket in the next few minutes of opening of the present is not. There is an alternative – a reusable gift wrap made of fabric.

Why you should wrap a present with fabric

Simple reason – Earth needs all the trees it has got. This season’s gift wrap should not be made of paper. Let us use the fabric we have at home to cover the gifts so that one more of earth’s resource is not used up unnecessarily. I do read a lot of books still and write in many notebooks – so can’t say I am all goody two shoes but still. My bit.

What do you need to make fabric gift wraps

Fabric piece, ofcourse. The fabric gift wrap is a simple square piece of fabric. The size of this fabric piece will depend on the size of the gift you have. If you have a scrabble board box, the size of the fabric piece to wrap it should be bigger than for a small watch box. Common sense.

Choose jute, burlap, or handwoven fabric for a rugged-looking wrap. Choose a metallic fabric for a festive-looking wrap. Add an embroidered patch or applique design for a unique take. Or embroider your own small motifs. If you do not have the fabric with the pattern you want, you can make one with patchwork – ie joining different fabric pieces together. Just add a backing and you have your own designer gift wrap.

Use ribbon or thin gold or silver metallic cord or colorful strings for tying the present – even if you do not need to, opening of the tie is symbolic. Add fabric bows, fabric flowers , trims as embellishments.

Finish the edges of your gift wrap fabric – any thing goes here. If you are lazy just use your pinking shears. If you can sew, sew the edges with a roller (hemmer) foot or just turn under and stitch the edges as you would do for a handkerchief or napkin.

Covering a box with fabric gift wrap

This gift wrap is used to wrap rectangular or squarish gift boxes. For this simple tucking wrap, you need a fabric piece which is of the following dimension

Width = Three times as wide as the gift you have + 2 inches + twice the depth of the box.

Length = Length of the gift you have + 6 inches ( add more to tuck for bigger boxes)

Step 1 Keep the gift box on the fabric. Turn the width wise edges to the inside (1.5 inches) as in the picture below