Today I’m returning to an idea that’s similar to one I’ve shared before, but with a twist. Making gift bags from the pages of old books. I love crafting with old books. I read a while ago that books are actually quite difficult for recycling plants because of the glue that binds them, so passing them on, giving them away etc is much better. Once they are well and truly falling apart they are a great material for fun craft projects. Treating the printed pages as a patterned craft paper means we are not buying more patterned craft paper and not wasting this great resource.

Last Christmas I made these little gift bags from the pages of an old novel that was falling apart. These little bags are perfect for gift cards, or small gifts. I used them for some sweet wristband style bracelets.

How to make a gift bag from old book pages

Recently I was given a large but battered copy of the complete works of Shakespeare. The pages of this book are pretty big - 31cm x 25cm (12” x 10”) so I thought it would be a good chance to make some gift bags that are suitable for slightly bigger gifts.

To make a book page gift bag you will need:

• Large book pages

• Scraps of card

• A 1” circle punch

• Glue - I used Pritt stick

• A hole punch

• Eyelets

• An Eyelet tool - mine is this one from Fiskars

• A length of string - I used some cord from the top of some old curtains to continue the upcycled theme

• A corner punch - optional

Prepare the book pages

Start by trimming the page to remove any torn edges. For each gift bag you need 2 pages. Trim one across the top so it’s about 3” or 7.5cm shorter.

Prepare the paper fastenings

Take the trimmed off section and glue it to some scraps of card. Using the 1” circle punch, punch out 2 circles for each bag.

Punch a hole in the centre of each circle and then fix these “washer’ to the book pages using the metal eyelets. One goes at the centre of the longer page 1” (2.5cm) in from the edge. The other one goes in the centre of the shorter page 3.5” (9cm) down from the top edge. I have a little spring eyelet fixer but you can get squeezy ones too.

Place the book pages together so the washers are on the outside on both pages, line up the bottom edge.

Stitching the gift bags

Stitch round 3 sides on the sewing machine using an old needle (I keep one especially for paper) and a large stitch length. Normally with sewing you will do a few backwards stitches at the beginning and end of a seam to secure it. Don’t do that on paper! It’ll just perforate it too much. Just leave a tail of threads and knot them afterwards to stop the seam unravelling.

You can round the bottom and flap corners with a corner punch if you like, that’s optional.

Take a length of thin twine, approx 35 - 40cm (14” - 15”) is about right. Mine is upcycled from the cords of old curtains, you could use thick sewing thread, embroidery thread or fine crochet cotton too.

Pop the gift in the bag and then wrap the twine around the washers to secure.

It’s the perfect gift bag for a small book but would be great for any small gift, a notebook, stationary sets etc. If your book was Shakespeare like mine it would be ideal for theatre tickets too! The size your gift bags turn out will of course depend on the size you book pages were to start with.

Julie

I’ll be sharing this idea at some of these link ups.

If you like crafting with old books you might like to look through these projects too: