Wednesday, December 14, 2011

No Sew Felt Booze Bag :) Just in time for Christmas!!!

I've decided that "SPIRITS" are going to be one of my gifts of choice this year.  A nice bottle of something is always good to have on hand to take to a Christmas party and since the guys in my family are not really THAT into headbands and frilly things.... I think they're getting a little "holiday cheer" as well :)  But a bottle with a bow, while perfectly acceptable isn't that pretty or special so I went looking for PLAN B!  I found this great no sew felt gift bag tutorial and gave it a try.  
My bottles were too big to use just one piece of felt folded over so I changed it a little, but the original idea was great and I love the way they turned out.
To make these super cute "booze bags" as I am calling them :) You literally need 10 minutes, two pieces of felt, some fusible tape (I used stitch witchery), a bottle of alcohol of your choice, a piece of ribbon, scissors (I used pinking sheers just for fun) and an iron.
Lay your bottle on the felt and figure out how much you will need to to cover half way around the bottle (because the 2nd sheet will cover the other half), then lay out your stitch witchery along those edges.  You should need about 3/4 of the sheet.
Now take your second sheet of felt and snip a hole a couple inches from the top in the center of where your bottle will be.  Then cut out a circle around that mark.
It doesn't have to be perfect, just make a circle big enough to slid in your bottle later.  The felt will give a little so it doesn't have to be more than a couple inches across.
Now lay that felt sheet on top of the the first, cover with a damp press cloth and using a hot iron on the steam setting iron over the edges.  The directions say 10 seconds should fuse the fabrics and that worked for me.  If after going over all the edges there is a spot that isn't fused just set the hot iron on there for another few seconds and it should be perfect.
You could stop now with a perfectly usable gift bag, but I decided what's two more minutes.. right??? So I used my pinking sheers to cut off the excess on the one side and then trimmed all along the other three sides so they would all have the same jagged edge.
Now take the extra you cut off the right side, (you may have to pull them apart if there is a little stitch witchery on the one edge) and use this as your material for your felt flower ornament.
I just cut those strips into a bunch of circles and then with some hot glue and a piece of ribbon folded in half used one of those circles as the back of the flower.
Next just glue on a layer or two of your circles.
Then to make the center of the flower, take your last two or three circles.. put some glue down the middle...
fold it in half.
A little more glue in the center, then fold it in half again.
Now one last dab or glue... (forgive the glue fingers... it seems as if I am a bit of a messy crafter :)
Press a couple of those into the center of your circle layers and there you have a super easy flower ornament for your bottle!
Ta-da!!! I made all of these during one nap time.  I think they look great with tall bottles and shorter ones.
So much cuter than a boring paper gift bag!  
And not only is it inexpensive, they are unique and won't wrinkle so you can totally re-use them.
Oh and all the great color options are pretty fun too!
I'm also thinking about doing some with a flap so you could use them for other gifts as well. 
Hope you like my latest project!

Good Luck, Lindsey!

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