This month is all about the Holidays, decorating our home, the trees and wrapping the presents. All of these fun activities can take a toll on a person. Especially me! Today I’m going to show you how I do my gift wrapping with vintage fabric.
I love to see the presents all wrapped up and placed under the tree in time for Christmas. I remember as a little kid anxiously waiting to open those presents. And when my kids were young I’d sent them off to bed and stay up half the night wrapping boxes and adding embellishments. It had become a therapeutic ritual for me after all of the rushing around and shopping.
This of course was when the kids were little. As they grew older I tried to be frugal with the wrapping paper because it was a waste to throw all that paper away. And believe me with four kids, it was a LOT of paper. I even tried using it as a fire starter at one point but I think it was not the best paper for that idea.
In my effort to reduce all of this paper waste I started to wrap gifts with fabric scraps that I had at home – and not just for Christmas. I have lots of pieces of fabric either from old clothes or from curtains that I don’t use anymore. You can use old tablecloths, old sheets anything really as long as you like the pattern and fabric. And I know you have them too, you just need to look at them from a different perspective.
Who says we have to throw everything away? Many of these ribbons that are on the pastry box are so pretty… of course what’s inside the pastry box is also very good, but that’s another story.
If you have a ribbon with writing on it, there is a way to get the ink off. The solution was provided by L’Atelier de Marie-Anne over here. Thank you Marie-Anne, now I can use up all of my pastry ribbons! And they are aplenty!!
The lace you see below was part of a dress my girls wore when they were little and sweet. Well they are not little anymore and they don’t wear lace, and as for sweet, well, as a mama I have to say they are still sweet!
I made this tag by cutting a circle and then using an old hole punch I found to make this pattern.
I hope you have enjoyed my ideas on how to repurpose vintage fabric (or any fabric for that matter) for gift wrapping. Have you ever wrapped your gifts in unusual ways?
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Loved your idea Mary. With 2 kids (now grown) we considered it a good Christmas when we filled the woodstove 4x with the wrapping paper. Is there ANYTHING green in that statement? My Depression-era mom saved and ironed paper and ribbon. I consider it a fire hazaard and buy the cheapest stuff I can find after Christmas! Well, I started sewing cloth bags with pretty ribbons/cord/lace set into the side seam for my church’s bazaar and family. One friend and I sent it back and forth for 3 years! My kids could have cared less about keeping these bags so they’d come back home with me! Then I started using my cooky tins and vintage tins, too. I’m not above saving an oatmeal box either! This last year I wrapped cereal boxes (top cut off) in wrapped paper, added yarn/ribbon handles for gift box/bags and made toilet paper roll “pillow packs” for jewelry. Sold sets of 4 different sizes as a set at the bazaar for a measly $1. My town’s transfer station does not recycle lightweight cardboard and THAT hurts my Scotch-Irish-Polish sense of thrift!
I never even thought of using fabric as wrapping what a brilliant idea Mary
Mary, I love this! I think I was channeling you last Christmas. We always wait to wrap until Christmas Eve and we ran out of paper! UG! Nothing was open, we had no newspaper, so we used fabric! LOL Mine were not nearly as pretty as yours, but they were wrapped! Now that I see yours I’ll have to look for fabrics in the cheap bin that will work for gift wrap, it is such a waste to spend a ton of money on paper and then throw it away! Brilliant!
Great way to use us fabric scraps. Fabric offers such pretty texture and design.
Your fabric wrapping idea is just lovely Mary. I’ve used fabric strips for ribbon but never wrapped the whole thing with fabric. It’s especially good for people who you know will make good use of the fabric afterwards.
Mary,
My family used to make fun of me for collecting all the ribbons, tags, and paper after presents were opened. Everything was too beautiful to use just one time. Now, they carefully remove everything and pass it over to me with smiles.
Thanks for sharing at Monday Social.
Judith
Genius, Mary! I have all kinds of scrap fabric that could be used in ways I never thought!
This is kinda a “oh my gosh, I could’ve had a V-8 moment, Mary!!
Great idea!
jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
I have a tradition of wrapping shower presents in material. For a baby shower I use a receiving blanket, for a wedding shower a tea towel or two.
I have never considered using material for Christmas, maybe sewing a bag, but not reusing something.
I cannot figure out how you wrapped the tops into such pretty little arrangements. Well done Mary.
This is such a great idea, Mary! You save money on wrapping paper, and it’s so much better for the environment! Definitely a win-win! I might have to give this a try this year!
Love Love this idea !!! Very pretty the way you wrap with the lace ! Do you find that the recipients keep the fabric or do they give it back to you or do you just throw it away?
This speaks right to my own repurposing heart- and fabric stash as well!! Very cool! My dad is famous for saving the comics from the Sunday paper– many a Christmas and Birthday gift came wrapped in newsprint!
I love this idea, so unique and it looks really pretty. I hate the amount of paper that gets wasted at Christmas and this is the perfect solution.
Such a great and pretty idea!!!
These are beautiful Mary,its a great idea I was brought up with the phrase “waste not want not” and I thank my late Mother for this,your ingenuity is tops.
This is such a creative way to use fabric and it’s much better than using paper to just rip and throw away.
Great repurpose Mary of something that might otherwise be thrown away. I loved all of your crafty touches with ribbon and tags, too. Thanks so much for linking up your posts with us at Vintage Charm 🙂
Mary, my Grandma use to wrap our Christmas gifts with old fabric. She owned a fabric store and always had tons of leftover fabric. I kept all those scraps and made a quilt out of them. I cherish that quilt still to this day xo
This is so smart and cute! I will definitely bring out all my fabric scraps this year!
I find wrapping presents really therapeutic too, Mary! Yours all look beautiful – and what a wonderfully frugal, environmentally friendly and meaningful way to wrap gifts. Thank you so much for sharing with the Hearth and Soul Link Party. I’m featuring this post at the party this week. Hope to ‘see’ you there! Have a great week ahead!
This is such a cute idea, and my family would so totally expect it from me lol. since I do a lot of sewing andf am pretty frugal. Thanks for sharing on Bloggers Pit Stop. Hope to see you next week.
I found your link on Handmade Monday. What gorgeous wrapping!! Thank you for all these ideas. I have provided a link to your site in my newest blog “10 Ways to Wrap with Fabric”. https://whatsnanamaking.com/10-ways-to-wrap-with-fabric/
Thank you so much Nana! I wish you all the best for the holidays!
This is wonderful and a great way to give vintage fabric a new life! Thank you, Shared. 🙂
Dropped by from #BloggersPitStop and so glad I did. 🙂
Hope this weekend treats you kindly. 🙂
I so appreciate your eco friendly approach to wrapping gifts, Mary! I love that everything used can either be reused or repurposed.
Love this eco friendly gift wrap idea Mary, thanks for sharing.
What a gorgeous way to wrap thing Mary I love your use of fabric
Mary! Another fab idea! I want so much to be like you. 😉 Thanks so much for joining the To Grandma’s House We Go link party!
I love the recycling aspect and the packages are absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing, Mary!
I would never have thought to use material. I hate to see all that lovely paper and cards just discarded, ripped off and trashed.
Kathleen
Blogger’s Pit Stop
Great idea! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!
Super cool idea! Wow, never would have thought of that!
Thanks for linking up to my Dagmar’s Home link party! I’m featuring your blog on my next party: http://www.dagmarbleasdale.com/2016/12/dagmars-home-link-party-148/!
Dagmar ~ Dagmar’s Home
Love this idea Mary, they all look fabulous although I’m not sure I am ready to part with any of my fabric lol
Good Afternoon Mary, What a brilliant idea to repurpose material.
Reading your other comments I can see we all have the same feeling about wasting wrapping paper. My daughters used to tease me because I used to gather up the paper which was not torn too much and re-use it the following year… do you know I have even been known to iron crinkled paper, which my daughters think is hysterial. They love telling anyone who will listen about this story.
The trouble is, I can’t bear to throw away paper, it seems such a waste. I even cut up last years Christmas cards and use as tags.
I love this idea so I am going to wrap my daughters gifts in material….I know they will love it because they can reuse the material.
Best Wishes
Daphne
I too am like that Daphne always saying every scrap just in case I’ll be using it elsewhere. I hope your daughters were happy with their gift wrapping.
What a super idea, Mary!!! I also keep lots of old clothes and fabric in two big suitcases and I really need to get rid of some of them.And I also have two boxes full of ribbons and lace. I will certainly use your idea to wrap my Christmas gifts!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!
I see we think alike Marie-Anne. This is a great way of using all those pretties without having to throw them out. And now other people will get to enjoy them too.
Thank you, Mary, for putting the link to my older post!!! I can imagine many of you now washing and removing the writing from your ribbons!!! You will see it is very easy!!!!
I have quite a stash of vintage fabrics. I don’t know whether or not I can part with them though, but it’s a great idea. Maybe if I make sure they give me the fabric back after opening the present.
Claire you just solved your own problem. Have them give the fabric back to you.
This is inspiring. I love the idea of repurposing children’s outgrown clothing! commercial wrapping paper is such a waste and I love the idea of reusing something!
It really is an idea that serves more than one purpose. I am also on a tight budget so I cannot see spending money needlessly, but even if I wasn’t it still seems a waste to use paper like that.
I love it! I will steal this idea, actually the whole article. I hope you won’t mind to quote your idea on my blog. 🙂
Gabi, I am glad to hear that you like it. It is an easy and eco-friendly way to celebrate without breaking the bank. I would be happy if you used a photo and a quote and even linked back, no problem at all.
Thank you, Maria. Always a joy to visit you here 🙂
I love this idea Mary. We donate most of our old cloths to the hospice, but I have lots of fabric scraps that piling up in the craft cupboard waiting for some kind of inspiration and what better way to save the environment and some money than to use them to wrap Christmas presents
I usually just keep them around till the right project comes along but I had really overdone it lately. I needed to use them somewhere. Why not for Christmas?
Mary, I like your attention to frugality. In our house growing up, we had to cut wrapping paper off carefully, then put back in the box to be reused next year. Today when I see young folks ripping off the beautiful paper, I can’t help but shudder at the waste. Old habits are hard to break. When I was grown, I told myself I wasn’t continuing that tradition, but I feel guilty every time I tear paper off…LOL.
I’m surprised to hear the paper doesn’t burn very well.
Florence the frugality came out of the fact that we had the crisis upon us but even with four kids you are always watching your pennies. I used to do the same thing when I was a kid, learned it from my mom. We would carefully unwrap the presents and reuse the paper. The paper is not good for the fireplace because the colors are toxic when burned. It burns just fine but is not good for inhaling .
What a great idea. A nice twist.
Thank you Kellie. I try to go for the unexpected sometimes. Don’t want to bore my readers (wink)!
Girl, you know how much I love this idea!
I love using fabric, wallpaper, anything that’s a it out of the ordinary for wrapping gifts. In a pinch, I’ll use a gift bag, but it’s rare to see me buying wrapping paper!
You’ve done a great job of demonstrating different fabrics and wrapping ideas Mary. Your resourcefulness is truly inspiring.
xxx
Love this idea Mary! I use to have a pretty good pile of fabric and scraps until I went through my divorce. Then I had to get rid of a lot, couldn’t take everything with me. But happy to say my stash is starting to grow.
My favorite is the twisted one with the tag!
Linda I’m glad to hear that you are growing your stash. I am trying to make it smaller because I really didn’t need that much. Really there are so many pretty patterns and fabrics out there as long as we are willing to look.
This is such a clever idea! I was just stacking fabric and wondering what to do with it!
Thanks for inspiring me!
karianne
KariAnne you inspire me every single day! I am honored to have been able to reciprocate. Thanks for visiting.
What a wonderful idea. The fabric is so pretty and how nice to reuse it over and over.
It sort of makes the gift extra special when it’s wrapped in fabric don’t you agree Debra? And so much less waste.
I have lots of fabric pieces, smaller and bigger ones, they’d be great to wrap presents! I totally agree that all that paper can get too much and is a waste, I use some paper for a few presents and then have big fabric bags, store bought though, for the bigger presents… I really like how you added gift tags and fun ribbons to the presents Mary! I’m sure they look so great under the tree!
Katrin that is a great idea, to use big fabric bags for the bigger presents. And I was even thinking we could use scarves as gift wrap and then when we are done, wear them as scarves. So many fun ideas instead of the paper which is a sad waste.
Mary, I really like this idea of using fabric to wrap gifts!! I need to go through my stash and find some cute stuff to wrap gifts. I think if I got a gift wrapped in fabric, I would be just as excited about the gift wrap as the present. 🙂 This is really brilliant and pretty!!
Thank Keri. I have to agree with you. Wrapping it up with fabric makes it extra special. And I know you have a stash, who knows it might even be as big as mine.
Greatest re-purpose ever. I plan to use some red and white buffalo check fabric I recently picked up in the thrift store. It is going to be so cute. Thank you for this fantastic idea!!!
Ohh, I am so glad I posted this. I am really surprised by the positive reaction this is getting. Thank you for letting me know that I’m not some kooky old lady who is hoarding things. Lol!
About the ribbon recycling, you might wish to have a look at my older post http://latelierdemarieanne.blogspot.gr/2012/10/ribbon-recycling.html
Hello Mary,
this truely is a great idea! Some clothes just aren’t any good to give it to charity. Even though I still find it hard just to throw them away (meaning: giving them to my husband so he can use it in the garage for wiping up anything spilled, etc.). Thus I’ve got quite a stash in the studio too… Thank you for sharing this idea with us!
Have a lovely week!
Marjan
I am so glad to hear that it can be useful Marjan. Some of these scraps are so pretty but not big enough to do much with. So why not use them this way!