ScrapHappy March: Birthday Book Gift Sleeve

This is my first time participating in ScrapHappy. I’m really excited about this group, because I think it will help me use up materials I have rather than buying new materials I don’t really need. I decided to ease in with something simple.

March is a big birthday month for us. All in total, we have five birthdays to celebrate this month. It’s common for me to sew drawstring gift bags for gift wrap. Here is my post from December when I sewed gifts bags for everyone from a yardage of quilting cotton I had in my stash.

My oldest turned 26 last week. Our plan was to go to Perkins Observatory on Friday, but the birthday kid came down with Covid, so we’ll try again another time. Here is our gift, wrapped and ready for next time. (It was an overcast day anyway. Maybe next time we’ll have clear skies and get a look through the big telescope!)

When trying to come up with gift wrap for this, I thought about reusing a paper bag and decorating it, or wrapping the books in fabric. However, knowing my oldest would not have any need for a scrap of fabric, I decided to try something new. A gift book sleeve!

This sleeve has clean lines and makes a great pouch not only for gifting books, but also packing a lunch, or holding a journal, pen, and pencil. The fabric is leftover from my Winter Solstice Project Bag made in 2020. I was thinking about purchasing a piece of space fabric, but I thought, “Let’s just look in the ol’ stash first.” When I found this star fabric, I thought it was perfect! It’s two rectangles of fabric the size of the largest book, plus a couple of inches on each edge for seams, gussets, and top hem. If you want to add a drawstring and casing, you’ll need a couple more inches on the top side.

ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible. More information can be found here. Contact Kate or Gun to join. Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at):

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy,  Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo and Alissa

Posted on Posted in scraphappy, sewingTagged

18 thoughts on “ScrapHappy March: Birthday Book Gift Sleeve”

  1. That fabric is perfect for this gift! And wonderful for any present, really. Thank you for linking to the ScrapHappy blog page. I’ve subscribed and maybe I’ll even join in sometime. For now, though, I’ll enjoy and be inspired by yours and others’ creations.

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  4. Oh, that fabric chose itself, didn’t it? Perfect for the contents. We’re so glad you’ve joined us, and hope you’ll enjoy the monthly round of using up scraps. You don’t need to post every month, but it’s perfectly possible (I just realised today I’ve been doing ScrapHappy for seven years this year and haven’t missed a month yet. I like the idea of a gift wrapper like this. I’ve given gifts in furoshiki before, which you can also make from scraps, of course, but I rarely get them back, which is not the plan!

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