Sew Your Own Reusable Shopping Bags

It seems like we collect plastic bags everywhere we go! Reusable shopping bags can help reduce the number of plastic bags you bring into your home. Life Sew Savory has a tutorial showing how you can sew your own reusable shopping bags. They’re easy to sew and so useful to have on hand. Use them for groceries or anywhere else you shop!

These reusable shopping bags are made from a polypropolene fabric which has the benefit of being sturdy but also lightweight. The nonwoven fabric doesn’t fray so you won’t even have to hem it! The polypropolene will also fold up small so they’re easy to carry along with you to the store. This kind of fabric also happens to be very inexpensive, which always a plus! Go to Life Sew Savory for the free sewing pattern.

[photo credit: Life Sew Savory]

If you’re making a reusable shopping bag for your groceries, you’ll also probably want to make some reusable produce bags. That way you can skip the plastic bags in the produce section when selecting fruits & veggies. My Poppet has a tutorial showing how to make DIY reusable mesh produce bags. The mesh is lightweight (important when you buy produce by weight!) and they have easy drawstring closures.

You can also turn old t-shirts into reusable shopping bags. This tutorial by Paper & Stitch shows how to upcycle t-shirts into shopping totes. Most of us have plenty of old t-shirts that we don’t wear any more so this is an easy way to turn them into something more useful.

And for the plastic bags that still make their way into your home, a simple hanging organizer can help keep them tamed. Hello Sewing has an easy sewing tutorial showing how to make one. The simple design is easy to use – just put the bags in the top, and then when you need one you can pull one out from a hole in the bottom.

Next Pattern:

I am just smitten with this felt gingerbread house bag. This would make such a sweet special Christmas accessory for a kid. It’s a free pattern at Benzie Design, designed by Gracie from Hello Gracie Makes. It’s packed with adorable gingerbread house details, like swirls and stripes and scallops adoring the doors and windows.

And while all those details might seem like this would be a complicated pattern, it’s actually not. The bag itself is made from felt, which makes finishes edges unnecessary. (All of those scalloped edges are just cut from felt, no edge finishing required.) The strap is super simple, made from rope with knotted ends. And all those details are made with some basic hand embroidery stitches. Sparkle felt makes it extra cute.

The striped scallop roof is actually the top flap of the bag. A magnetic snap makes it a secure closure. The rope straps are attached through felt loops at the side of the bag.

They rate this project as an intermediate level, and it should take about 6 hours to make start to finish. That’s doable for a Saturday project or a couple of evenings. Full color photos step you through the entire process.

The project includes a shopping list for all of your supplies. They’ve got a shop so you can order all of them from Benzie if you like and get exactly the supplies used in the project. I noticed it includes a pair of scallop shears, which makes cutting all the scalloped edges for the roof and around the door a breeze.

Finished dimensions of the little felt gingerbread bag are approximately 6 ½” wide x 7 ½” tall. That’s the perfect size to hold a small book, a small toy, or a notepad and some cute pens.

Go to Benzie Design to get the tutorial and free pattern for the felt gingerbread house bag.

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