A paper-less Christmas

I had mentioned that on my Christmas to-do list was to make fabric squares that I could use for gift wrapping instead of paper. Well, I got it done, so thought I would share the results and my thoughts about the whole process. 

I made 17 squares of fabric for wrapping and used all but one. It was a little too small to be useful, it turned out. All the other gifts went into reusable gift bags or boxes. I also reuse gift tags, tissue paper, ribbons, and bows from year to year, so everything I used will be used again. I'm cheap and dislike waste, so this felt good. 

But how did the presents look? Here are a few all wrapped up.

This is the same gift from the top:

This is just quilting cotton:

A drapier fabric:

And flannel. This piece was really too small, so I wrapped with it like paper and used a ribbon to hold it all together.

Did it make a difference to the Christmas chaos? I think so. Here are all the wrappings folded up and ready to be put away. It might have taken me a half hour to get it all sorted. So definitely longer than shoving paper in garbage bags, but really not that much time. 

And the stack of fabric wraps.

And here is the garbage and recycling from the morning. (Some children used paper to wrap.)

This was significantly less than past years where we could easily have a couple of garbage bags filled. I'll say it was a good change.

If you were interested in doing something similar, make the fabric squares bigger than you would expect, especially if you want some pretty ties. The size I needed did surprise me a bit. I used all types of fabric, but the shinier, drapier ones were my favorites to use. They also happen to be fabrics I would be less than thrilled to purchase new. I would look for fabric remnants or old table linens as places to find fabric to use. I'll probably be keeping an eye out myself to make a few more larger sizes.