How to Repurpose Vintage Fabric for Gift Wrapping
Happy December everyone! This month is all about the Holidays, decorating our home, the…
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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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.
Such a great and pretty idea!!!
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.
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!
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 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!
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 kinda a “oh my gosh, I could’ve had a V-8 moment, Mary!!
Great idea!
jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Genius, Mary! I have all kinds of scrap fabric that could be used in ways I never thought!
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
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.
Great way to use us fabric scraps. Fabric offers such pretty texture and design.
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!
I never even thought of using fabric as wrapping what a brilliant idea Mary
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
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 🙂
This is so smart and cute! I will definitely bring out all my fabric scraps this year!
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
Super cool idea! Wow, never would have thought of that!
Great idea! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!