When you don’t have a bow for a present, but do have the plastic bag from the store and some fast food napkins, you can make a bow.

I usually have some napkin twine in my car as an emergency craft project. I prefer the unbleached napkins because the resulting twine is more aesthetically pleasing, not strong, but artful. I tear about 1/2” strips from the napkin, fold it in two, twist the single strand away from me, and twist the two strands together toward me.

To make the bow, I smoothed out a plastic shopping bag, the kind with handles, and cut it into four equal width sections, two long, two short.

I start with the long sections and fold the ends to the middle with about a half inch overlap.

I repeat the fold for all four bag sections, then stack the four pieces with the longest on the bottom. Often, cutting the bag results in mis-cuts, sections of bag that don’t go from end to end. I pull these out as added decorative elements.

Using my paper napkin twine, I scrunch together the center of the plastic bag stack and tie the twine around using a square knot on the long side (back of the bow).

Then comes the fiddly bits (for me). Each loop of plastic from the stack gets opened up and pulled away from its partner(s). This fluffs the bow and gives it volume. I work from the back forward, and one side at a time.