Bag It

Every year our church does a Giving Tree outreach program to people in Southeast Missouri.  In late November several artificial trees hung with envelopes pop up in the back of the church.  Each envelope represents one person, and has a list of things they're asking for.  To participate, you select one (or more) from the tree, buy the things on the list, then return the wrapped gifts several weeks later.

This year Hubby Tony and I each picked a man's envelope.  A couple of days later I did the shopping.  Both of the men wanted shirts and socks--simple requests to fill.  I also purchased personal care items for each of them.

Last night I wrapped everything.  I covered the shirt boxes with colorful paper and slid the packs of socks into gift bags.  Unfortunately, I didn't have anything the right size to hold the personal care items.  I did NOT want to go back to the store, so I started looking through my stash of material to see if there was anything I could use to make a bag.

There was a piece of green burlap that looked nicely masculine.  It only took ten minutes to cut and sew up the sacks.  After they were filled, though, I couldn't figure out what to tie them with.  I went on another hunt through the house and stumbled upon packages of white athletic shoe laces.  It was easy to weave the stiff aglets at the end of the laces through the holes in the burlap.  I used one pair of laces for each bag (which will be a tiny additional gift) then drew them up tight and tied the ends in a bow.  Even though the laces still have some fold lines in them I think the finished result looks pretty good:

Five years ago today: New Thing #335--In The Studio