Gift for my niece: Japanese Craft Book and Cute Box Bag filled with goodies

Gift for Lexi
Originally uploaded by purlyshells

For my niece's birthday I put together this gift package. I got her a japanese craft book full of great projects and filled this cute bag with goodies.

Some of the goodies were a strawberry-flavored ring pop, a box of nestle crunch candy stixx, a 3-pack of ferraro rocher chocolates, 2 miniature rolls of ribbon, and some plastic "jewels". I'm sure she's going to make something lovely with the ribbon and jewels. She loves crafting just as much as I do!

I sewed the bag last night and loved how it turned out. The fabric is from superbuzzy. The pattern is from dragoknitfly's Box Bag Tutorial but with a few modifications.

I used a technique from this blog and cut out 1.5" squares from the corners. It really helps to keep the corners even and straight.

I also made my own modification by sewing the lining separately, putting it inside the bag, and handstitching it in place. No messy seams in sight! I will post pictures of how I did this in another post.

Her birthday is on Tuesday. I can't wait for her to open her gift!

Holiday Gift Guide: 6 Handmade Gift Ideas

If you're like me and running out of time on the handmade gifts-to-make list, here's a list of 6 (relatively) quick and simple things to make yourself. The best part is, these patterns are free :) yippee!


Baby Shrug


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I've actually tried this pattern already and loved how simple and fast it was to make.

Fingerless Gloves


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Knitting Needle Pouches


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Bias Tape Tote Bag/Organizer


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Baby Kimono Shirt


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Amigurumi Holiday Toys