December 20th, 2009
from the archives: wrapping japanese style
If you celebrate Christmas, you are probably in the throes of gift-wrapping as we speak. It can get pretty tedious wrapping gift after gift in the traditional way (seamline wrapping) So this year, give these Japanese techniques a shot: envelope-style or the slightly more complicated-looking diagonal wrapping.
Better yet, use fabric to wrap your gifts to reduce waste (I always get slightly nauseated on Christmas morning watching all that gift wrap getting wadded up and tossed in the trash). The Japanese government even promotes the practice and offers this PDF chart detailing how to wrap a number of differently-shaped objects with fabric. (via Make)
December 20th, 2009 at 7:14 am
We had our Christmas dinner today and I wrapped my presents in fabric, it was wonderful being the only one to have no rubbish as a result of my gifts but people still looked at me like I was cheap for not buying wrapping paper.
December 20th, 2009 at 11:32 am
This Japanese wrapping practice – furoshiki – is worth a try. Glad to see you have featured it again. The pdf file with diagrams or many sites on the Net give the how-to and the scope of what can be done so simply with beautiful results. There is cloth made especially for this – and using one makes the wrapping a gift as well – but any piece of fabric can be used (and then used as a napkin at Christmas dinner!) It adds to the fun.
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:54 am
I love it!! I found this, is soo lovely!!
http://esetsy.blogspot.com/2009/12/tutorial-cajita-de-origami.html
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:19 am
I saw this when I traveled to Japan in the department stores. The assistants would wrap my “gifts” this way, but always so quickly and with such expertise I couldn’t ever wrap my head around how they were doing this. Thanks for these instructions!
January 4th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
It’s such a pity I came across your blog only after Christmas! I think I’m very lame about wrapping gifts :-p And it’s such a nice idea to use fabric! I’ll try this for my parents’ wedding anniversary :)