Packing Pouches ~ Alternative Packaging Using Shelf Liner

I bought some vintage vinyl shelf liner second hand a while back. I’ve been working on alternative bags for packing jewelry. I’ve tried to do recycled mail packaging before with very little success. Since it rains a lot here, I like to pack the items I’m shipping in a rain resistant package.

Above is the final version of my packing pouch all closed up. I went through several versions of the pouch before I finally found a version that I though would work for me. I thought I would show you my iterations.

I have two kinds of vinyl shelf liner, the gold and the red. My first version used the gold. I cut long strips of it, rounded off the edges, folded the bottom part up and zigzag stitched around the outside. For the closure, I decided to use paper circles riveted to the flap and pouch then tied with thread. On the first two pouches, I forgot to consider a closure for the bag. The rivets are reversed on them. I finished them then decided to do one more by riveting the circles on before sewing the pouch.

After finishing the 3rd gold pouch, I thought, “Why don’t I just use Velcro?”. So I pulled out some red vinyl shelf liner and made a few more pouches. I zigzagged all the way around, then sewed on some Velcro dots. I put a button on the flap cover up my stitching. I still wasn’t satisfied. They looked so plain!

I thought they would be great with a pocket on the front for my business card. I found some red mesh in my stash. I zigzag stitched a piece of mesh on the front then sewed up the pouch.

Also I decided that I had so many plain white buttons that I might just as well use them to make a closure for my pouch. I sewed a button to the flap and one to the mesh pocket.

Since the vinyl shelf liner is tacky on the backside, I folded a piece of paper in half and put it inside the bag. I can slip my piece of jewelry between the two halves of paper. I can slip my business card in front. Finally I can tie the ribbon around the buttons for a rain resistant package.