Making an origami tote bag (gift wrap)

Dear community,
in this blog post you can find detailed instructions for making an origami tote bag as a beautiful gift wrap.

Origami – the Japanese art of folding

Everyone is familiar with the unlimited possibilities origami offers for folding paper boats, animals and packaging.
We probably almost all know the simple pattern for a hat or a ship, because who has not folded sweet wrappers into a boat and then put it onto water? And whose ship immediately keeled over and floated upside down?
I want to show you today how to fold these beautiful tote bags and boxes using fabric. The sewing machine is only used a little.

The Origami tote bag

For this pattern, you need a rectangle with a side ratio of 3 : 4.
I have tried out the following sizes:

18 x 24 = bag height of 6 cm
24 x 32 = bag height of 8 cm
30 x 40 = bag height of 10 cm
51 x 68 = bag height of 17 cm

You could also try out different sizes of your own. The short side must be divisible by 3 and the long side by 4 – you could also make it 60 x 60 cm, but in this case your bag will not be square.
Fabric on its own is not enough. The fabric needs to be reinforced. First, iron the relevant piece of fabric onto fusible web. Then apply the fabric to a backing material. You can use pattern paper or more rigid coloured cardboard, depending on the size and required sturdiness. I got the best results when I tried it with simple embroidery stabiliser. The embroidery stabiliser can also remain underneath, because the boxes are rarely washed.
The paper layer is removed from the fusible web and the fabric is then ironed onto the other backing:

Now comes the marking of the folds on the edge:

Each fold – in this case so-called “valley folds” – needs to be ironed so the crease stays in the fabric, with the right side facing down:

There are 2 folds in the longitudinal direction (the side is divided into thirds) and 4 folds in the transverse direction:

For the diagonal folds, the piece is turned over so that the right side now faces up and these folds are then called “mountain folds”, and you fold diagonally across the 9 squares and iron it all again thoroughly:

Sides A and B are the front and back of the bag:
You can then experiment and choose for yourself whether to embellish it with decorative embroidery, use the circular embroidery attachment, free-motion quilting or appliqués. You could also use stamps, printing and painting.

Embroidery does not work very well with tissue paper underneath. When sewing decorative stitches involving reverse stitches, the machine does not feed the fabric very well as the paper is too slippery. It works much better with embroidery stabiliser underneath, and the thread tension was also not set correctly for the paper backing.
It is best to iron the creases again after embroidering:

We now fold the tote bag out of this flat piece.
Place the creased piece in front of you, wrong side up and in the lengthwise direction – so the long sides are at the side.
Fold one side in to the middle and fold it back on the creased diagonal. The side is on the outside again, standing upright. Do the same on the other side. Fold the rectangle inwards around these two triangles and then iron well again:

Turn the piece over fold the other side in the same way. You now have a square box. The side panels are now folded inwards at the middle:

The flap, which goes over the bag, can either be folded into a triangle and inserted into an opening on the front. For this, a buttonhole is sewn in the previously marked position. I then topstitched the folded-over triangle:

Or alternatively, you can create an asymmetrical flap, which I have again finally topstitched to prevent the fold from opening up again:

On the really small bags, I have used a pin to keep it in place or you could also use self-adhesive hook-and loop fasteners, which I had unfortunately run out of:

On the later models, I neatened the edges before folding:

I have made the tote bags in various sizes:

Here are some examples of the bags made using Christmas fabrics:

Bei diesen beiden Tragetaschen habe ich nicht im Verhältnis 3 : 4 zugeschnitten. Da kann man erkennen, dass gar nicht so gut geht: hier sind die Seitenteile nicht hoch genug – zugeschnitten habe ich 45 x 80 cm. Die Tasche mit den Elchen aus der Größe 60 x 60 cm konnte auch nicht so richtig gefaltet werden. Aber mit einigen Änderungen und dem Bügeleisen ist es doch noch eine Tasche geworden.

— Also lieber bei dem Seitenverhältnis 3 : 4 bleiben, dann sind der Boden und die Seitenteile immer quadratisch.

Und für die Origami-Schachteln findet Ihr verschiedene Anleitungen im Internet.

Die einfachen Schachteln werden ähnlich gefaltet wie die Tragetasche, die oben beschriebene Anleitung für das Falten mit Stoff gilt auch für die verschiedenen Schachteln.

Hier seht Ihr Schachteln aus Stoff und ein anderes Modell aus Papier: