After the cosmetic bag marathon - I had the brilliant idea to make the kids at church a little present each.

We have a tree in the building, and I heard that one dad asked if they could get small presents and put them under the tree for the kids to open after our dinner.

You see, the 24th is Christmas Eve. We have several Ukrainian families who attend our church now and naturally they are displaced. Their families are back in Ukraine. The 25th is the day they celebrate, but the 24th is the date Polish people celebrate.

Well, we decided to have a dinner after church on the 24th for all those who wish to stay. No pressure for the Polish folks who want to go to family or eat with them. Their big day is usually the 24th - in the evening.

So…after dinner on that date, we will give the kids each a little something.

I had the brilliant idea of making each of the kids a bag. Not something big and complicated. Quite the opposite - something small.

So I’m making each of the kids a drawstring pouch of some kind. Most of them are fully lined.

BUT, the three boys who are 11-15 are getting a drawstring ‘shoe bag’ as per Rob Appell of Man Sewing.

To make the children’s, we asked them what their favorite animals were. It became apparent that the smallest of children really didn’t have a favorite - just typical things. For the girls - not scary things and the boys….well, one of them we know actually KEEPS spiders in the house Yes…he will probably be a naturalist one day!

So…here are the drawstring bag pouches I’ve been making - for the children/girls. I did make the two older girls’ bags the full size - same size as for adults as per the pattern linked below. Let’s see if I can remember the ages - boys: 2, 4, 5; girls: 3, 6, 6, 8, 11, and 14; older boys - 11, 11, 15.

To help keep the older boys and teenager bags from looking like children’s or girlish, I went with denim.

Here are the two who said his favorite animal was a racoon and the other who said a polar bear. I spent most of the day working on the embroidery for them. I don’t have any racoon fabric - though I do have some polar bear. However…I decided to just do the denim. I’ve not trimmed these up yet. Nor have I finished making the bags.

Here are a couple of You Tube videos showing something similar to what I’ve been doing. I didn’t actually make them exactly like these, but modified a different pattern - which I found here.

Before I get going here, I did use Erica’s video to give me guidance for the gift bags I made for the cosmetic bags.

Here are two drawstring bags more LIKE the ONES I’m making: Because I’ve just made so many, I did start changing sizes around and adding boxed bottoms, etc.

So there you are. I’ve taken a little detour from quilting to get these done.

We will get something to put in each of the bags. For the boy who likes spiders, I did buy a stuffed spider - it’s here. :) It’s very soft and not really very scary, is it?

Mike and I will find something to put in each of the other bags. A toy of some kind.
I wanted to say that these are all really fast presents. Well, the ones with embroidery are not so fast, but the other ones are and can easily be customized to fit the interests of the children who will be getting them.

I’ve also seen some drawstring backpacks which looked pretty simple as well - and also could easily be made just for the person with our quilting cotton that we have!

Check those out - by searching on the internet for them! I’m sure you will fine plenty of videos or patterns/blogs!

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!

Feel free to browse the site.