Wine Bottle Gift Bag Tutorial

Peek-a-Boo Gift Bags. Make small ones for party goody bags.

Tall, narrow ones make great wine bags.

I had absolutely no intention of making a wine bag but I miscut and accidentally ended up with one. Shows you where my mind was! Love that the opening shows the label though. Humm...giving out bottles of wine to the trick or treaters. Now there's a concept! A nice bottle of cider would be fun instead of wine with mulling spices attached.

Large bags are the perfect size for giving caramel corn and Chex Mix.

The Medium size is great for  hot chocolate mix.

They work for any occasion or holiday. One thing to consider when selecting your sizes is that they hold a lot. It can be expensive to fill the larger size so don't make them too big unless you're filling them with caramel corn, Chex Mix or something that's fluffy and relatively inexpensive.

For added interest I've added some scrapbook elements.

I love the detail and touch of whimsy they add.

You can even write on the vinyl windows with these.

And if your writing is less than stellar simply print out your message from your computer in your choice of fonts and trace.

One more idea before we start. If you don't want to divulge the contents of the bag, why not affix  a photograph behind the window? The bags could be used for wedding favors, gifts from a newly married couple, new baby or a nice way to present your families Christmas photo.

Enough talk. Lets get to work.

(All instructions are for the large bag ). I've included some good recipes too.

Cut main fabric for outside of bag 12 1/2" tall x 18" wide.

Cut lining fabric for bag 14" tall x 18" wide.

If using optional ric rac for top binding you will need 18" (one half yard)

1/2 yard ribbon for tie

5 1/2" square of Steam a Seam 2

5" square of vinyl

1/3 yard of 1/4" to 3/8" wide ric rac for around opening - optional

optional embellishments

Cut lining and outside pieces.

If using ric rac sew it across the top of your outside fabric. To do this line the edge of the ric rac up with the edge of your fabric and sew down the middle of the ric rac.

Lay right sides together (lining and outside fabrics) and sew again this time on top of the first row of stitches.

Press your seam toward the lining.

If you are not using ric rac put right sides together and sew 1/4" along the top joining the two pieces.

Press toward the lining.

Turn your fabric right sides out (wrong sides together) and align the lining and outside fabric at the bottom and sides. Because the lining fabric was cut bigger than the outside fabric it will wrap around to the front creating a band across the top.

Press. (I've lifted a corner here so you can see the lining fabric there behind the outside fabric.

Fold that puppy in half with the right side of the lining fabric facing you (on the outside) and the raw edge to the left, the fold to the right.

Measure and mark a 5/8" seam allowance along the left raw edge.

Measure up from the bottom 3" and mark a line.

Using a glass about 3 1/2" across, center a circle between the marked seam allowance and the folded edge. At this point the circle will not be in the middle of the bag.

I have used a Sharpie for this so you can see the markings, but you will want to use a pencil or wash out marker.

Remove one side of the paper on the 5 1/2" square of Steam a seam 2 and with your hands press it behind the marked circle with the sticky side to the wrong side of the lining fabric.

Iron to adhere. Peel paper off the other side of the Steam a seam 2 and press with your hands only. Do not iron yet.

Cut the circle out. The Steam a seam 2 will hold the lining and outside fabrics together while you cut your circle but will let you separate them later to insert the vinyl. Cool huh?

Now pull the two pieces carefully apart (you can do this because you have only finger pressed the second side of the Steam a seam 2 to the outside fabric). Center your vinyl over the opening. Notice I cut the vinyl into a circle that is roughly an inch bigger than the opening.

Lay the lining back over the opening and carefully iron the two layers together being careful not to touch your hot iron directly on the vinyl.

The Steam a seam 2 will hold the vinyl to the two pieces of fabric but because the vinyl is not attached to the outside fabric (only the lining) you can insert a piece of ric rac as you sew. This is optional but so cute!

Use a blanket stitch if you have one or a zig zag stitch to attach the ric rac and vinyl to the two pieces of fabric.

Trim everything all neat and tidy.

We're going to finish our bag with a french seam.

WRONG sides together, down the side and across the bottom using a scant 1/4" seam.

If you want to sew in your ribbon tie, you'll want to lay it in your seam like so:

Trust me this is the right way with the ribbon sticking out of the seam. If there is writing on the ribbon or if it has a right side and wrong side you'll want right sides together.

Clip the two bottom corners.

Turn bag wrong side out. Press. Stitch again this time with a 1/2" seam allowance along the long seam and across the bottom.

You can see the ribbon loop sticking out there in the lower photo. Just pull the ends of the ribbon towards the center of the bag to keep them out of the way of this last seam.

We're almost done. Promise.

Time for what we in the biz call dog eared corners.

This is what lets the bag stand up.

Fold the corners so they look like this

and sew across 1" to 1 1/2" from the tip, depending on the size of your bag. The deeper into the bag you sew the bigger your bottom. The more caramel corn and hot chocolate you consume, the bigger your bottom.

But I digress.

This is why they call it dog ears. Looks like a Doberman with cropped ears that's about to attack. Nice doggie.

Here's a look at that big bottom.

And here's the finished bag all ready to load with goodies.

And speaking of getting loaded...I don't know about you but after making it though this post I think I'm ready for this.