Friday, April 22, 2011

How-to: Furoshiki

Happy Earth Day! Every year, Earth Day gives me a kick in the pants to re-evaluate how I live and how I can improve my impact on this planet I call home. Maybe it does the same for you? Anyway, we could all be doing more to waste less.

 

In regards to this, I wanted to share a simple, totally badass and environmentally friendly wrapping technique called Furoshiki (pronounced something like f-ROHSH-kee). Furoshiki is a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth used to carry gifts or goods, which eliminates the need for bags or paper. It has a pretty fascinating history which dates back to the 8th century which you can read more about in this post on Etsy.

I first found out about Furoshiki in a soapmaking book. I tried it out once with some old bandanas I had lying around and I really liked the look of it. It felt good wrapping a gift for someone in a reusable item that wasn't immediately ending up in the trash.

I went to my friend’s baby shower a few weeks ago and had to wrap up some soap for her gift. I had just scored some cute fabric from a friend for free because I (fortunately) intercepted her Goodwill trip. A couple of things before we get started 1) I didn’t measure anything... just eyeballed it and cut off a big square of fabric (classic Jess) and 2) I didn’t sew the sides of the fabric to finish it. Doing both these things might make it look a little more polished, but I didn’t have time to do that.  But, in my opinion, it still looks great! Let’s get started…

Place item in center of fabric square
Fold bottom corner over item
 


Fold top corner over item.

Take the two remaining corners and tie a knot
Take the end pieces of the knot you just tied to tie another knot. Voila!

     And, since this is an Earth Day post, I think it goes without saying that it's best to use recycled fabrics for this. Thrift stores and your own closet have a plethora of old sheets, pillowcases, napkins, curtains, t-shirts, etc.that would be great for this and any other things you need fabric for.

   And you can find more Furoshiki techniques in this book. It's at the Flagstaff library too!



2 comments:

  1. Love this idea! Just used this technique to wrap up some of your soaps that I am giving as a gift. So simple and lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay! I agree, simple and lovely.

    ReplyDelete