Valentine's Day reusable drawstring gift bags for my little valentines

I keep meaning to make reusable gift bags for the major gift-giving holidays.  Then I forget until I'm wrapping gifts at the last minute, which is not particularly helpful.  This time, I actually remembered a few hours ahead of time!  Charlotte and Peter woke up bright and early on February 14th to find their Valentine's Day treats in these:

After I put the kids to bed on February 13th, I sat down at the sewing machine and sewed until nearly midnight.  Typically, this is not a good strategy for sewing because mistakes tend to be more frequent when exhaustion sets in.  I was wired, however, because I was monitoring Corey's overseas flight and tracking its progress while he flew to Germany on a business trip.  Yes, my lovely husband ditched the family for Valentine's Day (though not by choice!).  Notice I didn't bother making HIM a gift bag.  We are going to celebrate together when I fly to Germany to meet him in a few days though!

Anyway, I knew that the tutorial I was following (The Lined Drawstring Bag Tutorial by the amazingly talented Jeni Baker of In Color Order) was a no-fail proposition.  I have made a bunch of these before and have always loved the results.  This time, I got all fancy and added appliqué initials and some trim between the exterior panels.  It was the first time I had every used that little puff-ball trim (on the "C" bag) and only the second time I had ever used ric rac (on the "P" bag).

I opted not to use any interfacing in these since they were meant to just be gift bags.  They are made from some quilting weight cottons, and they fit Charlotte's Beanie Boo and Peter's Slugterra action figure (along with some chocolate and other treats) with lots of room to spare.  I'm going to pack them up with the Valentine's Day decorations so they will be a nice surprise to find again next year.

Now I just need to get motivated to make some Christmas and birthday gift bags!  Charlotte's birthday is coming up in a few weeks . . .

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