Sunday, January 2, 2011

Wrapping with fabric

In an effort to reduce paper waste, I decided this winter to try wrapping presents with fabric (called furoshiki).

Here's a picture of my mom's birthday present:



I also wrapped all the teacher gifts for N-man and B-man's teachers/specialists:






I wrapped a number more, but these turned out the best, probably because of perfectly easy box shape of these gifts.

What's my final call?

Pros:
  • Pretty! Don't these just look so special and interesting?
  • Surprisingly easy! There are plenty of sites online that give directions. I especially liked this one. You can even find youtube videos.
  • No paper waste. Fabric can be easily reused.

Cons:
  • Fabric is far more expensive than gift wrap.
  • I bought some flannel fabric because 1) it was half-off and 2) it had super-cute kid-friendly designs. I can use it, but it's not nearly as easy as the thin, silkier fabrics. You'll notice none of the pictures here are with flannel wraps!
  • While fabric can be easily reused for crafts (or for wrapping future presents), you never know if the person who receives the gift will end up reusing it, or if it'll just end up in the trash like wrapping paper would have.
So I guess in the end I'm still kind of up in the air about this one. What do you think?

3 comments:

Amy said...

I love this idea. At least there is more of a chance that the material will be re-used, plus it's so pretty!

Ronnica said...

Interesting idea (I hate the waste), but I know that I wouldn't reuse it if someone gave it to me. I do like gift bags though...I do reuse those and most others do, too. Though of course there's the tissue paper...

maggie said...

the fabric looks beautiful! i was going to do it, but then figured none of the people i gave gifts to would reuse it, so why bother. i do like gift bags for that reason - i reuse all the ones we get, and know friends do too...