DIY a Reusable Bag
By Karina | September 3, 2007
Jenn gave a lovely run-down of some of the reusable bags available for purchase out there last week – so let’s piggy back on her reusable bags momentum: here’s a bunch of bags that you can make at home easily – and even better, from repurposed materials! You can reduce AND reuse, in one graceful solution! And when you use your own reusable bags, you know, sometimes people think you’re from California…
- Craft Zine has a really wonderful run-down of the many different ways people have repurposed plastic bags into reusable items. From how to make a “yarn” from old plastic bags to a tutorial explaining how to fuse plastic bags together with an iron to make a sturdy sewable fabric, there are lots of great links and examples here. Don’t miss the amazing apparel people are making from repurposed plastic bags!
- This is a really clever idea for a bag. Essentially, you take a sleeveless shirt and sew the bottom together. The shoulder straps become the handles, and the neckline the bag opening! It may get stretched out quickly, but I bet it would be excellent for leafy greens at the farmers market.
- At My Recycled Bags you’ll find patterns for a number of different styles of bags. These patterns are primarily for crochet using a “yarn” made of old plastic bags, or VCR and cassette tapes.
- I can’t wait to see the results of the reusable bag contest over at Fashion-Incubator. She writes that the contest has been temporarily waylaid, but should be back on soon. You should all submit something! It looks like there’s a corporate sponsor!
If you find yourself loving your DIY bag, and more importantly, loving the MAKING of your DIY bag, check out Morsbags. With a tagline of “Sociable. Guerrilla. Bagging.” how can you go wrong? As they say:
the idea is to get together with people in your local community, drink wine and make reusable cloth bags (from old duvet covers, curtains from charity shops etc) and hand them out to the unsuspecting public for free on specified dates outside different supermarkets.
Morsbags has instructions for making bags from old bedsheets, and will link you to a “pod” of likeminded people in your area with whom you can DIY and distribute. As of my count there are about 30 pods in the US and many more in the UK. [link via whipup.net - and people have posted more patterns in the comments!]
Have you made your own DIY bag? what’s your favorite pattern? share photos with us!
Incredibly cool image of octopus bag from Betz White’s blog.
Topics: Crafts/DIY, Home, Waste | 7 Comments »
7 Comments
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I’m knitting a bag from this pattern in Knitty. The yarn was kind of spendy but I think it will take just over one hank to make one, so I can make two out of three hanks.
that’s a great bag, Eliza! will you let us know when you’re finished so we can link to photos or something?
Sure, I will put some up on flickr and let you know.
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I have my mom making reusable bags to sell on my site http://www.thepearproject.com but I also have some hand painted bags on the site as well as a few of the more traditional sort. You might as well shop in style…
Hey Brooke! Love your shop, and love those bags. Also, give your mom a high-five from the TC crew!