It's (K)Not Wrapping!

 Hello! I bet you’re waaaaay ahead of me and have all of your gifts already wrapped and under the tree don’t you? If that’s you then you might just kick yourself in a minute; If its not, then you’re in luck because I’m going to share a little wrapping love with you. I’m always looking for ways to make life a little greener and when I discovered Knot Wrapping last year I thought it was the smartest thing since …EVER. Why hadn’t I already thought of this? Its so simple and even more beautiful, and its green which makes the world happy as well as me :)

Really it’s nothing new; it’s another name for the Japanese art of Furoshiki, which is the giving of gifts wrapped in beautiful cloths. Traditionally the recipient of the gift returns the cloth to the one who gave it, but I don’t see that ever happening in my family!

So, here are three VERY easy ways to wrap your gifts this Christmas. The first two are quite similar, the first being the easiest version. The last one is easy peasy; your kids could do it.

Get yourself some pretty materials, square shapes are best. Size depends on how big the gift is; you’ll just have to give it a go. I found mine at charity shops, in my loft and a few I bought (coz, y’know).

Bow wrap:

Start by assembling your gifts in the middle of your cloth with each corner pointing to the four points on the compass.

Bring the top corner down over the gift.

Fold the bottom corner in a bit, and then over the top of the gift so you have no ends poking out.

Then bunch up each end, giving a little twist if you like, and tie in a double knot. 

You can leave it like this (I like this look) or you can poke the very tips of the corners under themselves and back into the knot to make a bow. Cute!

Bow and Tails Wrap:

Start with your gifts in the wrap as before. This time bring the top and bottom corners together in a large, loose knot. These will be the tails of your bow.

Then tie the opposite corners as for the bow wrap above, giving you the ‘bow’ to go with your tails. Alternatively, you can tie them in a real bow, but pull them through far enough to give the same appearance.

You might need to faff and re-tie a couple of times to get it right, but once you do you’ll be made :)

Last, but knot least (sorry) is the Drawstring Bag Wrap:

Begin by piling your goodies into the centre of your cloth with a flat edge facing you;

Loosely tie the right hand corners together…

Do the same for the left.

Then tightly tie a double knot from the top two ends…

And the same for the bottom two…

Pull and Voila! you now have a little bag with two handles. You can tease the bag open to add extra things by wiggling your fingers in to pull the large knots apart.

I can’t help but think that this technique is made for giving gifts to fabric addicts. Imagine giving a quilter a beautiful quilt book tied up with a yard of quilting fabric? Or giving a bag of sewing goodies made from a yard of fabric that matches the little charm squares inside?!! Mmmmm….

Happy Knot-wrapping everyone! If you get stuck, just search for ‘Furoshiki’ or ‘Knot Wrapping’ on the internet and you will find loooads of great tutorials and videos; I have really given only just a taster here, I hope it is the beginning of something beautiful for you :)

(Sorry for some of the photos, the light is terrible and it was a case of 'use the flash or see nothing' so i chose the flash! When I make it big in the crafting world, I'll get a professional photographer! ha!)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your plans for Christmas are panning out nicely? We are a little slow here, not much is getting done despite being very busy (why is that?) but I'll share our festive fun with you soon.

Merry Christmas!

Hayley

xx