For the Rain Gutter Regatta party, I'd already decided that I wanted to make homemade goldfish crackers.
But how to package them for the boxed lunches? In little nautical favor/treat bags that look like fish nets, of course!
Materials for Making Nautical Net Favor Bags:
- Russian Veiling
- satin ribbon
- glue gun
- twine
- scissors or rotary cutter
The trickiest part of this craft is finding Russian veiling (also called Russian netting). It's the stuff used to make those fun vintage birdcage veils and vintage style hats. There's a very similar product called English netting, that's actually a higher quality material, but it's not made any more, so it's much more expensive and in much more limited supply. For a project like this, making favor bags, you'll want the inexpensive Russian veiling. I've always bought mine from Hatsupply.com.
Cut the ribbon and netting to your desired length. That sounds like a cop-out instruction, I know. But you can make this favor bag in ANY size, and I don't want to limit you. But I will give you a more concrete example.
I wanted my favor bags to be 6"x4", so I cut my netting in a rectangle 12"x4", so that when folded in half, I had a nice, closed bottom of the bag and the dimensions I wanted.
The ribbon should be cut as tall as your bag will be. In my example, I cut the ribbons 6" long.
Maybe someone could sew this and make the bags look even better. My sewing skills, alas, are extremely limited, and I didn't even attempt it. Those large gaps in the netting are just so tricky even to imagine sewing, especially on such a small scale project. So instead, I used my trusty glue gun.
I glued the sides of the folded netting on one half of the satin ribbon, then folded the ribbon over, sandwiching the open sides of the folded netting between the ribbon. Easy peasy, and really fast. Though with all those big holes in the netting, I did glue myself multiple times. That's why I always use a low temp glue gun. I've burned myself enough times with the high temp ones for a lifetime, thank you.
Fill the bag with your treats, tie up with a bit of twine, and you're done. I loved how it turned out!
If you're better with a sewing machine than I am (and that's not hard!) and have an idea for how I could have sewn the sides, I'd love to know. Please help me learn!