What's That? - Produce Bags 101 - July 2011

Soooooo...  I don't like using paper or plastic bags for anything.  It irks me.  I don't know about you but I like reusable, washable stuff.  With that in mind, here's a great idea I've never heard from anyone else before... you know those little brown paper bags, the ones some people put fresh produce or glass bottles in?  How about the plastic ones (those seem more common)?  Yeah, THOSE!!!!  Here's the green alternative!  Take some of those old cloth samples and make mini-bags!  (If you scroll down there's actually a picture of what I'm talking about!)  It doesn't take much material... in fact, it takes less material to make a min-bag than it does a dinner napkin!  Yup, that's right, less than 23 inches.

First, cut the cloth so it makes about the right size.  Iron it out, trim it up and then sew around the edges.  I like the "fold-it-in-half-so-there-are-only-two-sides-to-sew" method myself.  The picture below shows a French seam... however that is not the only possible seam you can make.  I tried about 4 (which is the number of mini-bags I made) different ways to sew.  Personally, I think the French seam is probably the best for durability.  Also, in the picture below, if you look closely there is a tight part... where I sewed across the corner of the bag to make a bottom.  Thanks to the inspiration and example from Mrs. Stupfer, this was a no-brainer to add....

As you can see (below) sewing across the corner of the bag on both sides like that (above) actually makes the bag stable and able to stand on its own!  Yeah... that bag is NOT laying down!  Whadda ya think about that?  (I think it's kinda nifty, but that's just me....)

Above you can see a picture of the seam from the outside.  It didn't line up completely perfect, but ya know, it still looks good!  I can't wait to take these new bags to the market!!  Below is a comparison picture between my newly sewn blue produce bag and a little brown paper produce bag.  I could have made my little bag taller, but I think it's the perfect size... besides, I rarely ever fill the paper bags more than half way anyway!  Do you?

And finally, all four of my bags all ready for the market!  Hope this was an inspirational post for you!!

P.S.  Keep a look out for the next post... it's about the Tunisian (afghan) crochet!

Blessings!