I make drawstring bags all the time for all sorts of things like toy bags for the kids, to hold birthday presents, when going on holidays etc but I had marked in my favourites this easy lined drawstring bag by Jeni at In Color Order and thought it was a coincidence that Alyce had also made mention of it in her blog post. I’ve been wanting to try this method for ages and just didn’t have the time to fiddle with zips this time around. I also have such a huge stash of fabric that I’ve started cutting into strips and I thought it would be a novel idea to select colours that represented the Australian landscape. The greens of the rainforest, the blues of the ocean, browns of the desert, orange of the sun and other colours from the Great Barrier Reef.

The lining was really easy to do and I think I’ll do all of my drawstring bags like this from now on.

Bettepat let it slip that she wasn’t big on candy so I picked up two ‘healthier’ type bars to pop in the bag. One was a ‘Wallaby’ brand superbar containing mango, passionfruit and quinoa and a typical treat from Queensland, a macadamia and honey bar. There was also a small Steve Parrish calendar for next year featuring heaps of Aussie animals, a small tube of Lucas Papaw ointment and some cute Aussie Christmas themed fat quarters.

I also included an Aussie quilting pattern book featuring patterns of koalas, Aussie birds etc, a postcard from where I live and a cute little koala attached to a pen. Bettepat said she’s started using the pen and has received quite a few comments.