Quilted Furoshiki

The Japanese wrapping cloth known as the furoshiki is said to have been first used in the Muromachi Period(1392-1573), when people spread it out in place of a bath mat or wrapped one's clothes with it. I took the concept one step further and decided to reuse fabric scraps to make this quilted cloth wrap to be used to wrap gifts instead of paper and to encourage the recipient to reuse as well.

First step is to gather your favorite fabric scraps. Using similar types of fabric is the best. Cottons, polyester, silk, or nylon are the best but select the same kinds for this project.

Step 1:

Place two pieces of same width sized fabric, right sides together, about half an inch below one another. The length or the height does not matter as long as they are about the same. Trim the edges as you go. Little discrepancies do not matter since you will be sewing bindings all around the edges when you are done with adding all the squares.

Comments

[tumblingblocks]

Cool idea! Is there a special tying method, or are the two corners simply knotted?

[ecogeneration]

Yup. You just simply gather the corners and tie them into knots. Very simple and yet pretty and practical!

[mattnbrenda]

Great idea. I always seem to keep small pieces of fabric around so this will help clean out the scrap drawer Thanx

[ecogeneration]

This quilted furoshiki came about because of my interest in being eco-friendly. Instead of using wrapping papers and throwing them out as soon as the gift is given, I thought using a reusable method like this would be better. Then, I thought of using up all my fabric scraps to make it - which is even better. So, yeah, this uses up all your fabric scraps and the final product is reusable so it is totally eco-friendly. And I think it adds more personal touch to gift giving. Glad you enjoyed it.

[thricecursed]

'This is a really nice idea...I am always looking for new and interesting ways to wrap gifts. :)

[fungus amungus]

These are nice pictures, but they could use some work with the brightness and colors. What image software do you use?

[ecogeneration]

I just uploaded from my Mac (iPhoto). Should I try to improve the colors?

[fungus amungus]

Sure. On one picture, try this: - Click Edit - Click Adjust - You'll see three sliders underneath the color diagram. Move the right one in a little bit - Now go to Saturation and move the slider a little to the right. Play around with those a little bit, making sure you're the image isn't too bright after the first change and not too colorful on the second.

[ecogeneration]

I played around with the edit a bit. Can you check them out and see how they look now?

[fungus amungus]

Much better!