10/17/2008

ReUse It! Produce Bags


I'm a green gal. I use cloth diapers on my baby, I compost our food scraps and yard waste, I take my own reusable bags to the grocery store. Because of this green lifestyle I also tend to buy a lot of fruit and veggies at the local farmer's market during season and at the grocery store the rest of the year. I find it extremely difficult to use those little plastic produce bags at stores. I also tend to lose the small items in my large bag while buying lots of goodies at the farmers market and need something smaller to sit them in. What to do? Well, make your own stylish reusable produce bags of course!


After lots of online research I came up with an idea that was spurred on by a lady who was making them out of fabric and doilies. My spin on the produce bags is even easier to do for us DIYers with no sew machine needed. Just a couple doilies and some ribbon.

Cost: $4.00

Time: 10 minutes

Skill Level: Beginner

Materials needed:

  • 2 identical doilies
  • 1 or more yards of ribbon
  • large eyed round tipped needle (optional)
Instructions:

1. Layout- Lay your two doilies on top of each other lining the holes up.


2. Seams- Starting at the top corner, working your way down make a 'U' shaped seam along the outside edge of the doilies. Make sure to make it a tight enough weave that your produce will not fall out of the gaps.


3. Knotting- After the ribbon has made its way around the outside edge tie off both of the top corners. This should have created your pouch.


4. Drawstring- Starting at one top corner weave another strand of ribbon around the entire top circle working your way back to the starting point. Tie off the ends leaving enough room for a little (or large) handle to carry it with.


5. Complete- Your done! Go enjoy the fruits of your labor. LOL, I could not help myself.



Overall Project Grade: A-

Project Notes: I love doilies so I have a fine collection to choose from. While trying to find the right ones I looked at the tightness of the design (large wholes could mean you would lose your small fruits), strength of the doily, and overall size. Have fun and use some creativity with this project. If you have large circle doily you could just take your ribbon around the outside end and make a bag that way without using two doilies. The sky is the limit on creativity of this project.

I love finding vintage doilies at garage sales but never have had a "need" for them before now. With this new project I can always find a "need" for a cute doily at garage sale!

For more great ideas visit:
DIY Day
Make Do Monday
Tackle It Tuesday
Get your Craft On
Works for Me Wednesday

10 comments:

Grammy said...

Hi I am learning to live a greener life to. I love the Very inventive ideal to use the doilies.
Have a great week.
Grammy

RecycleCindy said...

What an ingenious idea. There are so many things that we can recycle and upcycle that the possibilities are endless. Love your doily bag!

Kelly said...

I'd like to include this post in the ribbons and thread edition of Holidays by Hand on November 18th. http://almostfrugal.com/holidays-by-hand/

Jane said...

So clever. I imagine you could *carefully* cut a knitted blanket or sweater too.

Unknown said...

Fabulous idea! I lOOOVE this, and now I'm on the look-out for doilies!

Anonymous said...

I think that's a great idea. I bought some for www.ecobags.com years ago and people STILL look at me like I'm crazy every time I use them at the store! I wanna say - get with it people! So, I'm glad to see I'm not alone! Yours are way prettier than my plain bags are! :-)

Susie said...

What a cute and useful tackle:-)

Sarah said...

This is a great idea! I too use reusable bags ALL THE TIME and we buy and eat a ton of fruits and veggies and, though you can get away without using a bag if you're only buying one or two of an item (if you trust the cleanliness of the cart) it's much more difficult if buying many, like your apples there. I may have to find myself some doilies . . .

Best,
Sarah

Leanne said...

That's a great idea. They look pretty too. I'm going to have to make a few of these.

Sharinskishe said...

These are so pretty and fruit deserves looking pretty. Thanks for easy instructions too. I am glad you get to enjoy the fruits of your labors!! lol....... too funny!

Thank you for linking this to Make-Do Monday (last weeks addition). I hope you will link with us again as this was a wonderful make-do.

I am sorry it took me so long to comment back, but I/we have had the swine flu and I have been so sick myself and then taking care of the kids that I have been offline for a week! Sooo sorry I didn't read this earlier. But please come again!!

Shari
Practically Perfect Life
Make-Do Mondays

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