Tis the season...

I started this post a long time ago. And needed only pictures to finish it but as it the way with this time of year visitors, cooking and other activities meant that did not happen. So I have edited it a little, added  the pictures and now it is good to go!

.... for trying to finish up all my grandiose plans.

I like making gifts for people but around Christmas time the sheer volume of them if I chose to make them for everyone would put me in the seriously crazy group. So I bought giftsb but, inspired by this post from Sew Mama Sew and some of the great links they provided  in this post and this post I am making wrapping in the form of reuseable bags. I started by sending one off to my friend in our freindship group's (Not so Secret) Santa made from a pattern from the Lunch Bags! book.

I made the quilted drawstring bag, the last project in the book. I used a Kokka Linen and cotton blend for the outside and a simple solid for the drawstring closure. The batting was normal quilt wadding but you could also use insulbrite to help things stay cool I suppose. I am really happy with how it turned out, less happy with how long it took because I kept making simple mistakes, although sometimes I think the directions could have been a little clearer to prevent that. These unpicking issues also meant it took about and hour longer than it should have to complete and I only just made it in the mail before then end of the day. Hopefully it makes it before Christmas. 

Boyed by the experience I sat down this morning before work and wrote a list of the style of bag that I thought would actually be used by each recipient and would fit the gift. It didn't seem a green option to gift a white elephant. The thing that worked the best in all this planning was that I can make most of these entireley from materials already on hand! 

And here they are, all done.

1. Picnic Bag for Lydia - inside, 2. Picnic Bag for Lydia, 3. Simple Lunch Bag for Dad, 4. Lunch sack forJustin, 5. Bike bag for Mum, 6. For Iva, 7. Grocery bag for Ana, 8. Grocery bag Amy, 9. Lunch bag for Adrianne, 10. Mum's birthday, 11. A book bag, 12. Too cute!

I think this is a tradition to stay.