Crafting for Christmas (Part 2): Santa’s Loot

Hey there. It’s been a while. The ‘Handmade Held Hostage’ situation has thrown us for a loop around here. Thanks for all of the incredible support and rallying that the crafting community has created — literally on a dime. I’m very optimistic that our voices will be heard and revisions will be made to the law.

I wanted to share Part 2 of my Crafting for Christmas posts. A few years back, my siblings (one sis, one bro) and I decided that we would only exchange gifts if we all agreed not to go out and spend a lot of money, but instead we would each make something. Well, that wasn’t a big stretch for my sister or myself, but the two of us were very curious to see what my brother would come up with. Paper airplanes? Toxic brownies?

In the back of my mind, I already knew what I wanted to do. I had had good intentions (for years) to make a large Santa-style family loot bag. We often do a lot of traveling around the holidays. It was a pain trying to load up all the presents each time (usually in a laundry basket), making sure none got left behind and all arrived safely. So I thought it would be handy and kind of cool to have a personalized family loot bag that we could load up with the appropriate presents ahead of time, grab it and go. Great idea, right? But I never did it until the year of the “sibling handmade challenge”. That gave me the motivation to get it done and I liked the idea of all three of our families having one.

I had a lot of fun making them. Again, I love that applique and gingham! I used some drapery weight fabric to make each bag and large satin rope to create the drawstring that cinches closed. The top of each bag folds down to make a big cuff with pom-pom trim added to the edge. As far as the applique design, I just went for it — cutting shapes out of the fabric freehand. I had a general idea of what I wanted it to look like, but you could also sketch your design out on tracing paper first. I added some fun trim and buttons and voila! Here’s my sister’s bag:

Now, when we meet at our parents’ house for the holidays, the loot bags are in tow. And the best part is, when all the gifts have been opened, we load up the bags with the gifts we’ve received and know exactly which bag to grab when it’s time to head home.

BTW, for that “sibling handmade challenge”, my sis drew a portrait of Gracie & Aidan that I treasure. Brother cheated and bought us gifts! Should have known!