A DIY wine bag is always a welcome hostess gift to show up with something in hand or even at Christmas. In under an hour, you can easily make this last minute in a pinch!
We always seem to have more reusable shopping bags than we know what to do with. So why not upcycle them into a wine gift bag? With the holidays right around the corner, it’s handy to have a wine tote to carry some spirits to get into the spirit. Of course, it goes without saying that it could also carry a non-alcoholic drink instead; don’t forget about those designated drivers!
DIY Wine Bag
For the holiday season, the version shown below is ideal to use for gift giving 🙂 Because it’s in keeping with the ‘Eat, Drink and Be Merry’ theme, the graphic element forms a pocket that can hold a dining gift card to a local restaurant. Or switch up the graphic and insert an amazon gift card.
Whether you make this for yourself to transport wine to holiday gatherings, as a host(ess) gift or as a holiday gift to celebrate the season or New Years, you can customize it with any graphic or holiday message you desire. All you need is a home printer!
For our own BYOB bag, I couldn’t resist using our Birdz of a Feather logo (as shown below and in the video). It also doubles as a water bottle bag!.
Watch the DIY Wine Bag Video!
The video gives you a snapshot of all the steps to complete your own BYOB bag. Keep in mind as you watch the video that I’ve used our own logo to demonstrate how it’s done (and subscribe to our YouTube channel while you’re at it)!
Incidentally, I used two bags for this project: one reusable grocery bag and a reusable plastic bag from which I salvaged the cord handle. But feel free to use whatever you have on hand!
DIY Wine Bag Material
- Reusable shopping bag
- Cord from a second shopping bag
- Iron
- Pressing cloth
- Water soluble pencil or chalk pencil
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Cotton scrap (to print graphic)
- Freezer paper (or this 3 pack if you use it a lot)
- Printer (we use this one, but there are many updated models that will work)
- Sewing machine (we swear by vintage Singer and Kenmore machines, but this newer Singer model gets decent reviews)
- Cord lock
- Grommet (rust proof)
- Bodkin
- Ruler (this is the grid ruler I use and love for multiple purposes)
- Bottle of wine
- Gift card
Step 1: Take Apart Your Upcycled Bags and Harvest the Pieces
To start, use a stitch ripper to undo the trim and side seams from the reusable grocery bag.
Then untie the knot in the cord handle on the plastic bag. We’ll only need one of them, so set one aside for another project. – or use both if you’re making two bags!
Step 2: Smooth Out the Fabric
Take the fabric pieces to an ironing board and set the iron on the lowest setting (any higher and you run the risk of melting whatever the bag is made of). Place an ironing press cloth over the fabric and smooth out any creases in the fabric.
Step 3: Incorporate a Decorative Element!
Although I chose to use my Birdz of a Feather logo to adorn one bag, use the ‘Eat, Drink and Be Merry’ for the holidays – or any other graphic/text combo to embellish yours and make it unique!
Personalize a DIY Wine Bag
Did you know you can use your home printer to print on fabric? Believe it or not, it’s easy to print out on your own home computer! DISCLAIMER: My home printer is an Epson WF-3540 and this method works perfectly for me. Proceed with your own printer at your own risk.
However, on synthetic blends I find that the ink does not bond to the fabric as it does with cotton. At least for my particular (ink jet hybrid) printer. So The secret is to use 100% cotton fabric with freezer paper as a backing to stiffen the fabric and allow it to feed through the printer.
I typically print a bunch of graphics at the same time so cut the freezer paper 8 1/2″ x 11″ to fit a standard printer. You could of course set it up to print at whatever size your printer can accommodate.
After cutting the freezer paper, cut a piece of cotton fabric to the same size (in this case, 81/2″ x 11″).
Heat an iron to a medium high setting. Place the freezer paper shiny side down onto the wrong side of the fabric.
Iron the freezer paper onto the fabric; move the iron and don’t keep it on any spot for too long.
You can also iron on the backside, then let it cool.
If the fabric shows beyond the edges, trim it off with scissors. I don’t like to take any chances of the fabric getting caught in the printer!
Feed the now bonded sheet of fabric and freezer paper into the rear paper feed slot of your printer and you’re ready to print! Because the rear paper slot can take heavier card stock, print from there and not the paper tray or you may run into jamming issues.
One more tip: be sure you know which way you need to load into the rear slot of your printer (fabric side up or down) so that it prints on the fabric side and not on the freezer paper. Before using the fabric, do a test print with a piece of paper marked with an ‘X’ first.
Step 4: Bind the Raw Edge
As seen in the video, I cut one of my logos from the printed fabric, leaving 1/4″ all around. Then I use the seam binding trim saved earlier from the shopping bag and pin it around the edge. Take it to the sewing machine and stitch it on, cutting off any excess.
Here’s how this holiday version looks:
Step 5: Cut the Main Body
Cut the BYOB bag from the main body piece taken apart earlier. I use the full width of the bag – handle and all. The handle is going to be an integral part of the bag, so be sure to keep it on and incorporate it as a shoulder strap.
Step 6: Making the Bottom of the Bag
For the bottom of the bag, use the side pieces from the grocery bag. The cardboard from my Duck tape was perfectly sized to use as a pattern for the bottom of my bag. Double up the fabric, one on top of the other, and then trace a circle using a chalk pencil.
Pin the pieces together and cut out the circle.
Stitch directly onto the chalk line, then trim the seam allowance leaving 1/4″.
Step 7: Add Decorative Element to DIY Wine Bag
Position the design onto the front of the bag, pin and then stitch around it.
Be sure to leave an opening in the top if you want to create a pocket to hold a gift card! I didn’t do that for the version I made with my own logo so it’s optional.
Fold the sides of the bag together, right side out. Stitch a 1/4″ seam down the side.
Using another piece of the trim that was saved earlier, fold it around the raw edges of the sides of the bag and stitch it down using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Cut away the excess length of trim.
Step 8: Stitch Bottom of Bag
Pin the circle onto the bottom of the bag, wrong sides together, and stitch around the perimeter using 1/4″ seam allowance.
Use another piece of trim and stitch it on the same way as you did the side seam. Cut away the excess length.
Step 9: Make a Casing/Hole for Grommet
Next, you’ll need a casing for the top of the bag to add a drawstring closure. I used the scrap of fabric I previously cut the bottom from for the casing.
Cut a strip that’s 2″ wide; don’t worry about the length as any excess will be cut away at the sewing machine.
At one end of the strip you just cut, there may already be a fold; if not, create one to accommodate the grommet. This double fabric is ideal for stabilizing the grommet.
Step 10: Add a Grommet
Use pointy scissors to make a starter hole. Don’t be tempted to actually cut a hole or it will weaken the grommet; the goal is to stretch the fabric.
TIP: as shown in the video, insert a pencil into the starter hole to stretch it wide enough to fit over the post of the grommet.
Place the other side of the grommet over the post, then use a grommet plier to squeeze the two pieces of metal together.
Fold the ends under along the length (pin or press it):
Step 11: Stitch Casing Around Opening of Bag
Take the casing to the sewing machine and stitch it around the top opening of the bag on both edges to make a casing for the cord.
Step 12: Thread Cord Into Casing
Thread one end of the cord saved from the plastic shopping bag through the eye of a bodkin.
Insert it into the grommet and thread it all the way around the casing and back out the other side.
Step 13: Add the Cord Lock Onto the Cord
Squeeze the plastic cord lock to open it, thread the two ends of the cord through and release the lock. Tie each end of the cord into a knot (if the ends are frayed, you can trim them or carefully pass a lighter over them to fuse and seal the edges together).
Step 14: Enjoy your DIY Wine Bag!
Now, all that’s left is to slip your favourite bottle of wine into the bag, cinch up the cord and away you go. The original bag handle still serves as a shoulder strap to carry it!
Here’s a few closeups of the back:
Step 16: Gift a DIY Wine Bag!
With more more reusable bags than we need, this is the perfect way to transform them. Actually, combining the two bags makes them into something even more useful than originally. I had just enough left over from both bags to make another one; so I made the other one as a holiday gift!
As a finishing touch, why not add a restaurant gift card in the front pocket?
If you can sew a straight line, I hope you’ll give our BYOB bag a try!! You’ll be all set for gift giving this holiday season! Want more holiday inspiration? Check out these 31 Christmas Craft Ideas for Adults!
Because our house is so tiny, we don’t overdo it when it comes to decorating for Christmas, but we do have some unique Christmas decor ideas for you to check out!
Now that you’ve got printing on fabric down to a science, how about how to print on canvas? Anything is possible once you’ve got the technique down 😉.
Pin DIY Wine Bag
Pinning is always welcome and appreciated!
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I love this bag, it’s very beautiful and fun.
Thanks Ivory!
What a clever idea, Sara! Nicely done. (BTW, I’m commenting via Bloglovin and all came through well on this post). Alys
Thanks Alys – any many thanks for letting me know about Bloglovin. It looks like it’s up and running again; I’ll know for sure when I post again. Unfortunately my site has now slowed down to a crawl; probably something to do with the newest wordpress updates not playing nice with some of my plugins. Sigh; always something 🙂
What a cute idea, and you make it look fairly easy to make.
Thanks so much Linda! It really is easy to make and goes pretty quick too 🙂
such a great idea …wow ..thank you for sharing ….love it …have a great day …
Thanks so much for dropping by Madeline! So glad you like it 🙂