Make a gift bag from a couple of strips of coloured paper
I've always wanted to make one of these - they facinate me as it forms a bag from two pieces of paper woven together.
I've made mine from patterned 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper but you can get a similar size bag just using A4 paper. You want to use paper rather than card as anything too thick will be harder to weave. It's a little fiddly to weave but just remember its not under and over but through and around - I hope to explain this better with photo's - just see the instructions below.
You will need
- 2 different coloured papers
- 2 brads
- Small hole punch (I used Crop-A-Dile II but you can just use a needle to start a hole for the brad)
- Pencil and a ruler
- Scissors and a guillotine
- 10 . 5 cm circle to draw around (I used a die but you could use a mug, plate or draw by hand)
- Cut a 4 inch strip from both of your patterned papers (if you are using A4 paper then make sure you have the long length by 4 inches wide)
- Fold each one in half and draw a semi circle at the top (opposite end to the folded end). Ensure the semi circle doesn't come down below 4 inches from the folded end. I used a 10 . 5 cm diameter die to draw around - I only had to draw around the top half of the circle
- Cut along the pencil lines through both layers
- Unfold the papers and re fold with your pattern on the inside. (This ensures your pencil marks will be on the inside where they won't be seen later). Measure and mark across the narrow width at 1, 2 and 3 inches. Mark at bottom and just before the semi circle starts. Use a ruler to draw straight lines between the two sets of marks 4 . 25 inches in length from the bottom folded edge. Do this on both pieces of folded paper
- Use scissors to cut up these lines
- Unfold and refold the paper so your pattern is back on the outside
- Now we can start to weave the two pieces together. I've got my white bit on the left and the red one on the right. Put the first red strip inside the first white strip.
- Then feed the same white strip inside the next red strip along
- Put the third red strip inside the first white strip
- Put the first white strip inside the last red strip. This is your first woven line.
- The second white strip has to be woven in a similar manner but opposite to the first one - ie if you went through the red strip last time you have to ago around it this time. So take the second white strip and feed it through the first red strip, the second red strip then goes around it, the white strip goes through the third strip and then the last red strip goes around the white strip
- Weave the third and fourth white strips in the same manner but always weaving opposite to the previous row. I found the very last weave can be a little tricky but the previous weaving can be pushed up towards the semi circle ends therefore creating a little extra space.
- As I pushed the weaving up towards the semi circle, when you have finished weaving, you need to push the weave back down to the bottom to tidy it all up.
- If you have done the weaving right you should now be able to open the heart to see you have woven a bag
- Cut a strip of patterned paper 1 . 5 cm wide by the length of your paper (ie as I was using 12 x 12 inch scrapbooking paper it would be 12 inches long). This will be the bag handle. Punch small holes at each end of the handle and also through both sides of the bag centrally at the top as shown in the below photo
- Push a split pin through the front section only of the bag and then through one end of the handle before opening up the legs of the split pin to hold it in place. Do the same to the back of the bag and the other end of the handle with another split pin.
This is your finished bag.
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| The one on the left was made with 12 x 12 inch scrapbook paper and the one on the right was with A4 paper. The A4 paper one turns out very fractionally smaller than the other. |
