Quick Last Minute Gift

Has this ever happened to you?

You forgot to get a hostess gift for a party you are attending later this evening. You'd rather stab a fork through your hand than go out again in that last minute Christmas shopping hell, so you grab that bottle of Pinot you were hoping to enjoy yourself. But how do you make it look like you put a little effort into the gift instead of grabbing it at a liquor store on your way to the party?

Enter: the super easy to make wine bag. It says you're thoughtful and crafty, but what your hostess doesn't have to know is that it took you less than 10 minutes to make!

First, you'll need some festive fabric, about 13 inches by 11 inches. If you have a pair of pinking shears, use these to cut your fabric, it will make your life a million times easier*. Fold the fabric in half hot-dog way (so it becomes 13x5.5"), wrong side out. Sew along the long side and one of the short sides.

Now here's the fancy part: on the sewn short end, pinch your corner and sew a triangle into the corner like this:

Repeat with the other corner. This creates a more rounded bottom to your bag. Just make sure that your seam lays in the same direction on both corners, so it doesn't look like this:

Now, flip your bag right side out, insert your bottle of wine, and tie closed with a pretty ribbon. Voila!

*If you don't have pinking shears, make your fabric 1/2 inch longer (13.5x11), fold down the top edge 1/4" twice, and sew this seam down.

Mini Ring Sling

I was so excited when I saw these super cute mini Beco's for little girls to carry their baby dolls in. I wanted to get one for my daughter and was immediately convinced that it was going to be one of her Christmas presents. But as I thought about it, I had a few concerns. First of all, would it be small enough for her? My daughter is super tiny, only in the 4th percentile for height and 2nd for weight. Then there was the whole issue of spending almost $30 for something that I might be able to make myself. While a soft-structured carrier might be a little above my skill level, I knew I could come up with something that would produce similar results.

After thinking on it awhile, I decided to make her a mini ring-sling. I had made a few regular ring slings using a tutorial on the Maya Wrap website that appears to no longer exist, so a mini ring sling should be pretty simple, right? I first had to figure out what to use as the rings. I would typically use rings purchased from SlingRings.com, but since this ring sling would be much smaller and carry plastic or fabric baby dolls, I didn't really think anything that fancy was necessary. So I found some large D-rings at Hobby Lobby and used those. I bought a yard of cute fabric and cut it in half so it was approximately 18"x45". I hemmed the long edges and secured the D-rings on one end. I looped the free end through the D-rings, tried it on my somewhat unwilling model, and found that it fit!



Mini Ring Sling!



A fabric that is "reversible" or cute on both sides might work better, but lets be honest folks, this is for my 20 month old. She doesn't mind! After making sure it fit, I hemmed the loose end and hid it so she would forget about it. It's now wrapped and waiting to be put under the tree. Yay for simple, inexpensive Christmas gifts!