What do you do with all of the handmade garments and items that you make for your kids?
Do you hand them down to others or do you keep them? I give some of mine away to others and some of them I have to keep. I don’t know why but some of them I just cannot part with. I have to admit, I have visions of my grandchildren wearing them one day. I know that is probably just a dream but who knows, but I would rather keep them just in case then regret it later. Now of course it is impossible to keep every single thing I make for my kids. There is just too much stuff now, but there are a certain few items that I just loved or were the girls favorites. So I was thinking one day that it would be fun to make each of the items a little drawstring bag of their own and then add a little plastic sleeve to the front. That way there was a picture of my kids wearing or playing with the actual handmade garment or item that was inside. It would be a little keepsake bag of sorts.
Materials Needed:
* 1 piece of fabric cut into a rectangle shape. The size of the piece of fabric depends on the size of your bag you want.
*Ribbon or fabric for ties ties
*Clear Vinyl just enough for make little picture pockets with.
*Pictures of you children with the item or garment.
*Seam ripper and Fray Check
Start by cutting out a rectangular piece from your clear vinyl. Make it a little larger then the size of your picture and factor in sew seams. You want to make sure you have enough space to insert a photo once sewn onto the bag. Sew the vinyl onto the bag. Make sure you only sew the sides and bottom. The top is where the photo will be inserted. If you are having a hard time sewing the vinyl switch to a Teflon foot and make sure you use masking tape or washi tape to anchor the vinyl in place onto the fabric. You do not want to pin the vinyl onto to the fabric, it will leave holes.
Fold the fabric in half with right sides facing. Sew along the bottom and side. Finish off all raw edges that were just sewn. Make sure you leave the top open and is not sewn shut.
Now take the top edge of the bag and fold over 1/2″ and iron flat. Fold over another 1/2″ and iron again. Now top stitch all along the top edge of bag.
Turn bag right side out. Iron flat. ***Just make sure not to iron the vinyl!***
Grab your seam ripper and some fray check.
Make a little hole at the top of the bag for the ribbon to go through on one side. Add a little Fray Check if you want and let it dry.
Tie the ribbon onto a safety pin and insert into the hole you just made. Pull the ribbon all the way through till it comes back out the hole in went into.
And then you have your keepsake drawstring bags. Easy, right?!
Now take the items that you cannot bare to part with, fold them neatly and start filling the bags.
Take your photo and insert it into the clear pocket.
My girls went crazy over these bags…hopefully they will in about 25 year as well!
Neat idea! The bags could be used for lots of items. What size rectangle did you use for your bags?
This is such an amazing idea. What a keepsake! Pinning!
What a darling idea! I can see your grandbabies wearing these in 25 years. 🙂 my mom just gave me some clothes over Christmas that I wore when I was little. My daughter is pretty excited about them.
Also how did I not think of tying the ribbon around the safety pin instead of sticking the pin through the ribbon? Great idea.
What a lovely idea, Christina. You are going to have a lot of bags by the time your girls are adults. I hope you have lots of storage space 🙂 The girls will just love going through those bags when they are older I am sure.
What a cute idea – it’s like a scrapbook for clothes 🙂 I love it! I have saved all my favorite articles of clothing that my children have worn…or I have even been known to take a pocket off my son’s baby jeans and incorporate it into an actual scrapbook page…or pieces of my daughter’s t-shirts and pockets from dresses and stitch them onto handmade jean purses (from an old pair of her jeans of course!) But I love this idea too…thanks so much for sharing 🙂 – Cindy
This is such a sweet idea! And so beautifully put together. Thanks for sharing.
This is sooo much better than the clear ziplocs our things are stored in for keepsakes. It just adds the perfect note to the nostalgic memorable times when gone through years from now. Such a sweet idea!
I LOVE your idea for these KEEPSAKE bags with the photo on the front — FAB memory saver! I love your selection of printed fabrics… so colorful! BRAVO for your sewing talents! I plan to sew different size bags to gift to my nieces & nephews with young kids. Thanks again for sharing. Sarah Helene in Minneapolis
Do you sell on Etsy? I don’t sew:(
You’re killing me with sweetness here! I have not ventured into sewing clothes yet, and this alone makes me want to start. Super sweet. As an adult I would love if I had these keepsakes from my mom. I’m sure your kids and grandkids will too!
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