The Festive Holiday Ideas hop has started! Today is day one for me to join in this fun hop!

I am starting out this eight-day hop with a homemade gift which is today's theme! I'll share my project with you and then at the end, you'll be able to "hop" around to the other blogs to see even more great projects and ideas!! Sounds like fun right?!

Festive Holiday Ideas - Homemade Gifts!

Welcome back to year 6 of our Festive Christmas Event where we team up with a bunch of talented blogging friends to bring you a plethora of creative ways to celebrate your holiday season.

We will be baking some cookie recipes for you, sharing some party games, making some handmade gifts, doing some ornament crafting, and sharing our Christmas movies family fun. There will be breakfast recipes and as always our decorated Christmas Trees which is always a fun tour of homes.

You will find new ideas every Monday and Wednesday between Oct. 19th through Nov. 18th. Scroll all the way down to find all the ideas linked at the end.

I'm sharing how to make a car care gift bag for her with a DIY car trash bag and adorable flower air freshener!

This DIY car care gift bag for her was really fun to make and I think it's a great gift for those who have everything, I mean who doesn't need a pretty little trash bag and air freshener right?!

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Supplies needed to make the DIY car trash bag:

Oilcloth (half a yard is plenty)
Coordinating Thread
Coordinating Seam Binding Tape
Coordinating Button

Supplies needed to make the DIY air freshener:

Felt (color of your choice for the flower and green for the leaf)
Pom-pom (for the flower center)
Car Vent Clips
E-6000 Glue
Hot Glue

First, let's make the DIY car trash bag. I chose to use oilcloth because it can then just be rinsed out if it gets dirty but you can use regular fabric as well and just throw it in the wash if need be!

Cut two pieces of oilcloth 22" x 13". One will be for the outside and the other will be the lining.
Cut one piece 22" x 3 1/2" for the handle.
Cut one piece 22" long from the seam binding tape.

Fold one piece of the oilcloth in half, right sides together, and sew along the bottom and side edge with a straight stitch.

Next, you will sew a "box bottom." To do this, you will turn it so the bottom is facing you and pull the sides away from the seam, then pinch the corners together so it forms a triangle. Sew across each corner (there's a great little tutorial over for making box bottoms at Crazy Little Projects).

Optional: run a zig-zag stitch all around the regular seams. I thought this might help with the oilcloth but if you are using regular fabric you can skip this step.

Turn it right side out and your bag should look like this now.

Repeat this process again but leave the next one inside out. Now you have two bags, the inside out one will become the lining.

Place the inside out one inside the other one and straighten and align the seams inside.

Now we will fix the edges with the seam binding tape.

Stitch the piece you cut together at the ends, right sides together.

Slip it over the outside of the bag and stitch it to the top edge of the bag, right sides together, aligning the top edges.

Fold it over the top and down inside and stitch along the inside edge. (I forgot to take a picture of this step but you can see what I mean in this picture. It just folds over and covers the top, raw edge of the bag.

For the handle, fold the piece you cut in half and stitch along the edge. Oilcloth won't fray so you don't have to have a finished edge on the handle unless you want to.

Attach it to the bag with a button and you're done!

Now let's make the air freshener!

Cut a simple flower and leaf from paper to use as a pattern and pin them to the felt.

Cut four flower shapes and one leaf.

Next, fold a flower in half and add a dab of hot glue. Don't glue them completely together, just a tiny bit to hold the folded shape but still allow it to open.

Do this with all four and clamp them to dry.

Now, fold them in half the other direction adding another dab of hot glue.

Clamp and allow to dry again.

Arrange them like so, with points together.

Then glue them all together along the edges.

Fluff up the sides a little.

Flip your flower over and glue the leaf onto the back.

Use E-6000 glue to add the car vent clip to the back. I don't recommend hot glue for this part because the vent clip is metal and hot glue doesn't stick to metal very well.

Add a pom-pom to the center and you're done!

You will use essential oils on the felt portions to make it into an air freshener! Here is mine, I used peppermint and it smells SO GOOD!

The trash bag is so nice because since it's oilcloth you can just rinse it out if it gets dirty (please excuse my dirty car)😒!

Stuff the trash bag with a few other car essentials and the air freshener to make a great car care gift bag for her!

If you want to add a cute hand made gift tag, you can see how to make some like these here: Mixed Media Christmas Tags

I filled my gift bag with a pretty travel thermos, a car duster, the DIY air freshener and some essential oils, and one of those solar powered dancing flowers! 😊