Tutorial: Burlap Baggies

I came up with these baggies because I wanted reusable packaging for my soy candles. I figured once customers are done with the candles they can still use the packaging for just about anything instead of just throwing it in a landfill.

 You can use these baggies to house pencils and pens, coins, craft materials, jewelry and pretty much anything if you make them big or small enough.

For example; say you make handmade bath and body products, you can make a baggie big enough for a set of items and market them as a gift item or as a travel kit. You can use large hemp cord as your string or braided hemp or string,or even add a zipper, whatever you want.


What you need:

Burlap
Scissors
Ruler
Hot glue gun or sewing machine
Hemp cord or string
Needle with eye large enough for hemp or string
Beads
Optional:
embroidery thread
Iron

1. Measure and Cut Burlap

Here are all the different burlap pieces that you need to measure and cut
-9” x 4”
-3” x 3”
-9” x ½”







At this point you can embroider the burlap if you like, or hand sew beads into it, whatever you like.

I embroidered F.O.E for Found on Earth on the bottom of my bags.

With your 3”x 3” piece you need to:


Measure 1/2 an inch horizontally from the corner of the square, keep you pen or marker at 1/2 and inch and measure vertically from that point and mark this area with a sharpie. Make sure that you measure correctly because this first mark is what you will measure every other mark from.

From that sharpie mark you measure 2 inches up and 2 inches over and finally 2 inches down. Mark every 2 inches with a sharpie.

Here is all the Sharpie dots

After you do this you want to cut down and over from the dots and this will create your flaps for the bottom of the bag.

2. Fold and Crease or Iron
At this point you can opt to fold and crease the 3” x3” piece at each flap with your hands or with an iron; I just use my hands.

3. Assemble
I use a hot glue to adhere my pieces together, I suggest you use a sewing machine if you plan to use heavy items in your bags.

Sew/Glue in this order:
9” x  ½” piece onto the inside of your 9” x 4” piece then these two pieces onto your bottom 3” x 4” piece.

Glue the excess burlap into the inside  or outside of the bag.

 Once you are done gluing fold or iron a crease into each corner of the bag.

Here is option 2

 **Because Burlap naturally fringes you can fringe the top of your bag and then glue the 9”x½” piece into the top inside of the bag to prevent it from fringing all the way down.

Or, if you don’t want the fringed look you can do one of two things:
1. Cut the burlap at the end of the fabric where it is sealed.
2. Fold in half lengthwise then glue or sew the  piece over the outside and inside of the 9”x4” piece. If you use this option cut the piece into 9”x 1” to allow room for front and inside.




 4. String Bag

 Use a large needle to string in your cord or string into the bag and attach beads or even buttons onto the ends of the string or you can knot the end of it. Or if you want to, don't string it.

Here's the finished product without string.

A few tips and Cautions: Make sure that you turn the hot glue on early enough so that the glue is actually hot, I would say after you cut your pieces.

Also I’m a veteran when it comes to getting burnt by the hot glue gun so it doesn’t bother me to press my bare fingers against the hot glue and burlap, if you don’t feel comfortable just sew your pieces. Or, give the hot glue gun a try.

Make sure you place your glue gun on a good surface that wont melt or get damaged, try a craft table or cardboard.

The bag is lightweight, so if it falls over when you put items in it I suggest using something heavy in the bottom; I use little pebbles or a votive candle holder.

votive candle holder inside bag

Tips for Using Soy candles

Before your light that wick and sit back to enjoy your new soy candle, read this list.

Cure: All found on earth candles are made to order, so when it gets to you, don't light it yet, wait one to two weeks for the wax and essential oils to settle and blend, this process is called curing.

Cut: Trim the wick to one forth of an inch (do this every time you relight the wick).

Memory: The first burning of the wick is the most important time. To ensure that you get the best scent throw and the most use of your wax burn the candle so that the pool of melted wax gets as close to the edge of your candle as possible, some suggest that you burn the candle for one hour for every inch of the diameter of the candle. So if you have a 3.5 inch diameter candle burn it for 3.5 hours.
Stay Still: Once you light a candle leave it where it is. Imagine if you were walking down some steps with your candle and you happened to trip, all that hot melted wax will be all over you or on the steps or both, these are all horrible scenarios so please avoid moving that candle.
Extinguish:Now that your room is filled with the scent of your soy candle you don't want to ruin it by blowing it out and releasing all that smoke into the air. You can invest in a wick dipper or do as I do and us tweezers to lightly bend the wick into the wax pool and then pulling it back up and making sure it's straight. You might get little black flakes from the wick in your melted pool of wax, use the tweezers or any other object and get those nasty things out.
Be Safe:Please keep in mind that you are dealing with fire when you're enjoying your soy candles. Allows read and follow the safety tips on the bottom on the candle. I'll list some tips here just as a reminder.
-never leave a candle unattended
-do not place by drafts, drapes etc
-keep away from children and pets
-never place objects or water into a candle.
-do not light a candle for longer than 3 hours.

I hope this gave you all some help on using your soy candles.