Heavenly Hemp

My resolution not to use plastic bags is going quite well and recently I've been thinking about Christmas (I know I know it is far far too early) .... but my thought was that wrapping paper is kind of a waste too and why not just make beautiful gift bags to present your presents in that they can be reused and reused and reused. After all - Santa just uses one big sack no? And it was Santa's sack that made me think of making reusable gift bags for this years pressies.

So on a recent trip to JoAnn's (have you seen the price of fabric at that place? choose carefully and you can save SO much cash while adding to your material stash ... perhaps that is bad advice to all you material addicts!) I purchased some hemp (cream and brown) and here are my first attempts at reusable gift sacks. (These are just the first version of the wine bottle sacks - I'm working on much bigger sacks too.)
Each little sack as a felt applique image and embroidered message ...
It was so bright and sunny outside that I thought myself crazy for making Christmas goodies and the sun and the texture of the hemp made me think of straw beach bags ... and straw made me think of bunnies and then I was off and made this ... my rabbit hutch bag ... I know it doesn't look like a rabbit or a hutch but it was named after my thoughts of sunny straw and bouncy bunnies ...
... and I'm really not a big bag person so I'm not sure why I keep making bags but there was something about this one that made me feel happy and smiley. Perhaps it was the polka dots? or the little felt flower with sparkles ...
... or perhaps it was just the love I have of making things that got to me.