Gift Bags From Scratch

This is a wonderful way to make your own decorative bags. Making your own bags will ensure not only that you will have just the right size bag for your needs, but it will also lend a personal touch to your gift giving.

Procedure:

Cut a length of paper 25 inches wide off of the roll. Place a bead of glue along the edge that you just cut. Bring the opposite end over and press the ends together to form a tube (figure 1).
Side folds: Make a fold 4 inches from and parallel to the center seam. Press the entire bag down flat. This will make one back fold and one front fold at the same time. (figure 2) Unfold and fold 4 inches from the other side of the seam. Press the entire bag flat. This made the other back fold and front fold at the same time. (figure 3) Unfold. Taking the two folded edges of one side, press together. (figure 4) This forms the center side fold so that the bag can fold flat when in storage. Do the same for the other side.
Bottom: The bottom is folded similar to the way you wrap a package. First, with the bag lying flat, fold the bottom up 3 ½ inches. Unfold. This fold will be your guideline and also the bottom of the bag. Next, fold the bottom in on both corners even to the fold. This will form triangles on the sides (figure 5). Turn the bag over and repeat. Place glue on the triangles and fold up. (figure 6) If you place your hand inside the bag as you fold up, you can ensure the bag will have good contact with the glue. The bottom of your bag should look the same as the bottom of a brown lunch bag. To make the final fold on the bottom (this will also help the bag to lay flat in storage), pinch the sides together and fold the back bottom edge up about 2 ½”. Press flat. (figure 7)
Trim the top off the bag so that the bag is about 10” tall. Cut two strips 7” long and 2-3” wide from the piece you just cut off the bag.
Cut 2 lengths of paper twist 12” long. Unfold just the ends of the paper twist. Glue to the inside of the bag. Place glue on a strip that you cut in the previous step and place over the ends of the paper twist and press firmly. (figure 8) Do the same for the other side. You are done! :o)
Decorating: Now you can decorate it any way you wish. Scrap material cut into shapes, ribbon, patterned paper twist, splatter paint, buttons, etc. all make wonderful decorations. Scouting out the fabric stores will also turn up wonderful material with pictures you can just cut out and glue on. Just let your imagination run wild!

If you have difficulty with this at all, don’t get discouraged. After you make a few, it gets A LOT quicker and you can probably make a bag in 15 – 20 minutes or less. :o)