Sew a Reusable Produce Bag

Interested in doing things yourself? Check out more articles in our Make-Your-Own Guide.

For a wealth of green living tips, tutorials, and articles, click The Green Home Guide at Grow and Make.

Instead of reaching for ugly, disposable, landfill-clogging plastic produce bags in the grocery store, imagine being able to whip out a reusable produce bag you made yourself. Reusable produce bags, sewn yourself from fabric of your choosing, makes shopping eco-friendly and stylish. These bags are a terrific beginning sewing project, and can be whipped up in fifteen minutes from just about any spare fabric you have lying around. Follow the step-by-step directions below to get started.

Materials:

Fabric. Not a lot, not a little, re-purposed from curtains or tea towels or pillowcases, or purchased new for the project at hand. If you're buying fabric, choose a lightweight cotton. You'll need no more than a quarter yard per bag.

Thread to match the fabric

One safety pin, of reasonable size

Something to cinch the bag closed: try string, yarn, ribbon, baling twine or even shoelaces. Just about anything will work.

Also needed: an iron, scissors, and a sewing machine.

The first step is to cut your fabric into a rectangle shape. I was making three bags at once, so I cut three different-sized rectangles. One is 15 x 19", one 11 x 21 1/2", and one 7 1/2 x 15". When deciding how big to cut your rectangles, keep two things in mind:

1. The rectangles will be folded in half to make the bags, so go big.

2. What sorts of produce do you buy most? It would be helpful to sew bags to suit your needs. I made one bag long and skinny, the perfect size for carrots, celery, or asparagus. Another one is medium-sized and square, a good size for apples or potatoes. The third smaller bag I sewed for dry goods like beans or oats. These bags don't need to be just for produce: if you're a bulk foods shopper, sew a set of bags for your needs in that department as well.

Here are my rectangles folded in half, ready for sewing. Here you can get a sense for how big the bags are going to be when they're finished.

Take your fabric rectangle over to your ironing board, and press about 1/4" over to the wrong side of the fabric. Do this on both short edges of your fabric, not the long edges.

Thread your sewing machine with coordinating thread, and sew down each folded edge.

Now fold one of the long edges down about an inch, and press with the iron. This will become the top edge of your bag. Sew the pressed edge down.

Now fold your rectangle in half, right sides together. This is about how big your finished bag will be.

Starting just below the folded-down top edge of your bag, sew down the side of your bag, and across the bottom. You want to make sure to leave the ends of the folded-down top edge open, since that's where your string or ribbon is going to be threaded through.

Turn your bag right side out. Almost done!

Cut a length of string/cord/ribbon that's twice the width of the top of your bag, plus a few inches. It's always better to err on the side of too long here. Hook your safety pin onto the end of the ribbon, and starting with one end of the folded-down top edge of your bag, slowly feed the safety pin through.

When it's all the way through, knot the ends together (to keep the string from slipping out) toss it in your reusable grocery shopping bag, and head to the store!