Wednesday, September 23, 2009

cloth produce bags

Wow, you guys like your fabric scraps! Thanks for all the lovely comments and good luck to everyone. I honestly wish I had a little bundle and free shipping for everyone--you guys are such nice readers and commenters . . . I really am lucky that way. Comments are still open on the fabric scrap giveaway if you haven't entered yet and would like to.

I was inspired by Urban Organica's post on making cloth produce bags from fat quarters. And you know how I love a quick project! My mother had brought me these fat quarters from one of her trips--they were waiting for just the right project. I love that these are going to save plastic bags--the downside is they are heavy, so use caution if you're just buying a few organic green beans or something. I might make a few lightweight muslin (smaller) bags for just such a situation. I do think our plastic bag use in this country has gotten out of hand and try to do my part by using my Envirosax pretty religiously.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I made a couple of tulle drawstring bags for my produce. They are superlight and barely register on scales at the store and are surprisingly strong.

Anonymous said...

Hi still thinking about ways to use fabric scraps. This post at house on hill road is a bit of inspiration:
http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/09/little-log-cabins.html

wayfarer said...

it truly is insane the amount of plastic bags we use. I use cloth and net bags (from ecobags) but still i have a huge bag of plastic bags to recycle each month. I'm glad we have a drop off place for them and cringe when i see them in regular garbage. It takes so long for them to decompose. Our children's children will be grown before those bags decompose.

Tori said...

There is a great tutorial for produce bags from the book Sewing Green if you follow this link http://blog.betzwhite.com/2009/09/freebies.html Of course, I like the tulle idea too - very lightweight - no sense paying extra for your own produce bag.

Sheila D. said...

YES!!! Plastic bags...argh.

I will admit...I do forget my reusables every once in a blue moon so, if paper isn't an option, of course...there's ONLY the dreaded plastic bag.

The cashiers put literally one item per bag and get so irritated when I INSIST on stuffing EVERYTHING into as few as possible.

Thank you for sharing the bags! I have some fat quarters calling my name!

Christy said...

I actually found 4 or 5 drawstring "lingerie" bags that are intended for machine-washing your delicated at a thrift store. These are very lightweight and on the plus side you can see through them. The checker at the store doesn't have to dig the veggies out of the bag to check for the code.

A said...
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A said...

I like your idea of making produce bags --we have bins here in Canada for groceries (they're great, you get from the cart, to the car, to the house in just 3 steps), but the fresh produce still goes in clear plastic. I'll try to make my own. How can I get in that material bundle draw? :) There's also a problem with reusable bags that we need to be aware of: 1) some are still made of plastic! 2) many people forget to bring theirs so they just keep buying new ones every time they shop, and 3)it's a whole new marketing "you need this" thing that we don't need. Be aware and reuse your bags.