Several years ago, I just couldn't face buying a bunch of paper wrapping and plastic ribbons, struggling to make it fit the gifts, and then throwing it all away in a few hours. (Yes, I have always procrastinated wrapping until the last minute, but now my husband and I have a pretty great tradition of hiding in our room once the kids have gone to bed and laughing ourselves silly trying to get it all done before we drop. So, really the paper was only on the presents for a few hours and then tossed.) I decided I'd use cloth. I'm one of those people who always has random scraps of cloth around. I have one HUGE piece that's been used as window dressing, then as curtains on my son's school project, and finally a hooded cape with the leftover going to wrap gifts. You may have all kinds of old cloth you could use, but you can also find remnants at a discount at most cloth stores. Ugly, gaudy, silky, velvety, luxurious, even fake fur. It all works. It's fast, looks great, and can be used year after year. Tie with cloth ribbons or strips of cloth in any shape or form. In our family, we chose a color scheme for each person, so the piles under the tree even look coordinated. Cloth wrappings can be used for absolutely any occasion with any look and feel you like.
Some tips: Instead of cutting larger pieces to size, just fold them in halves or even smaller. You may have a giant gift next year that needs that huge piece of fabric. Same thing with ribbon: just fold and make double or triple bows. Consider wired ribbon, so you can reshape it each year and pep it up a bit. Sheer fabric is not a waste! It's great for layering on the inside or outside to create a different effect. And if you fold enough layers, the gift will be obscured by just the sheer fabric alone. Fold fabric to store, and by next year, most creases will be flattened out. Roll ribbon, so you can grab the pieces you need easily.
Storage: I keep the fabric folded in a clear plastic storage bag (I use one with a comforter years ago). Ribbons get rolled and tucked into a plastic container. Cleanup is pretty easy after all the gifts are opened, and then you just tuck it away until next time. I have everything from cotton in kids' patterns (bears and such) to vinyl, fake fur, satin, brocade, and actual holiday patterns with sparkles. For other seasons and celebrations, I have pastels, golds, whites, and florals. Ribbons come from everywhere -- even those wide cloths with velcro that come with linens sometimes. I have no idea how that helps in packaging, but it can be used to wrap gifts!
Soft, round, or irregular gifts: This is where cloth wrapping really helps! Just place the gift in the middle, and gather up the corners. Tie with an oversized ribbon. Tuck in any edges of cloth that stick out around the sides. This is a great opportunity to layer, too. Place one cloth inside the other askew, so that the corners of the top cloth overlay the sides of the bottom cloth. Gather and tie the same way, and your cloths will puff out at different angles at the top and make a more festive poof.
Long and thin or tubes: Wrap these like a piece of hard candy. Just roll in a piece of fabric and tie off the ends with bows. Fold the tail of the fabric down before tying the end and tuck in a small card.
Rectangle, like a book or box: Place the gift in the center of the cloth, and fold down the top edge. Fold down the side edges at angles. Fold the bottom edge in on itself, so it's more of a triangle, then fold that up and tuck it into the bottom side fold. Tie a ribbon or cloth around the base to secure, and you can tuck in a card if you like. Here, I used three pieces of smaller scraps of embroidered fabric: two to make a double bow and one to tie it to the gift. I didn't have any pieces long enough to do the whole thing.
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