How to make an environmentally friendly shopping bag

I am over the green bags. I don’t actually use them any more for my major grocery shop – I repack everything into the trolley and transfer all the groceries from the trolley into a washing basket and eskies ** in the boot of the car … then when I’m home I can carry the baskets into the pantry and unload direct onto the shelves. Easy. But for all those little purchases when you don’t have your green bags – I hate getting plastic bags, and paper isn’t much better. So I’ve made some bags that I can fold into a pocket and keep them in my handbag (in theory anyway). So here they are:

They aren’t super Enviro-friendly because I didn’t make them out of recycled fabric, or organic cotton, or hemp, or felt made from the dogs hair I sweep up (actually I could probably felt him a new coat every time I sweep the floor) – I used fabric that I bought a while back for no reason…at least they make it obvious whose trolley is abandoned in the supermarket while I take Moo to the toilet – she suffers from supermarket bladder – it hits her about the time I’ve loaded the trolley with the frozen stuff…which I have to abandon to melt while we walk 3km to the other end of the shopping mall to find a public toilet which is always ‘too stinky’ for Miss Delicate Sensibilities to use.

Anyhow…. This is what I did:

Materials:     2 pieces of fabric 15″ by 18″– this makes a tall skinny bag

2 pieces of contrasting fabric 15″ by 5.5″

2 pieces of fabric 39″ by 3.5″ for the handles (these are very long)

13″ by 8″ fabric for pocket.

I just guesstimated sizes and cut these out…. luckily they worked ok, because I cut out enough fabric for six bags at once….too lazy for a trial run. If I was doing them again Id make them wider.

Method:

1. Press ¼ inch seam allowances on the fabric for handles then fold in half lengthways and press again. Top stitch down both sides of the handles.
2. Press ¼ inch seam allowance on short sides of pocket, and then hem. Fold pocket in half right sides together and stitch up the sides. Turn right side out.
3. Press a ¼” seam towards the right side of the fabric on the large rectangle of fabric
4. Press a ¼” seam towards the wrong side of the fabric on the small rectangle of fabric, on both long sides.
5. Place handles on top of large rectangle of fabric, making sure handles are not twisted.
6. Place the smaller rectangle of fabric over the handles. The ends of the handles should be between the large and small rectangle of fabric, and both seam allowances sandwiched as well.
7. Pin handles in place (I made sure they extended about 1 inch between fabric layers). Top stitch along top and bottom of the smaller rectangle.
8. With the wrong sides together stitch the two sides of the bag together with a ¼ inch allowance, down one side, across the bottom and up the other side.
9. Trim seam allowance by 1/8″, then turn bag inside out.
10. Iron the seams so they are flat, and then sew the seams again, with a ¼ inch seam allowance. I think this is called a French seam, but I could be wrong.
11. Take the side seam and match it to the bottom seam and stitch across the corner about 1.5 inches from edge – on both corners, and trim corner.
12. Turn right side out and then stitch the pocket to the top of the bag along the top edge only (between the handles)
13. The bag can then be folded (sides in first and then folded from bottom up and tucked into pocket.

    

    

    Goodluck! Can you tell I taught myself to sew

 ** an Esky is Australian for an insulated box for keeping beer, and occasionally  food, cold.