TURN USED FABRICS INTO PRODUCE BAGS

In this instructable, I´ll show you how to make produce bags reusing old used fabrics. Why this? Nowadays, the plastic waste is a big problem in our society and there are easy ways to reduce part of it. A good example is when you go to buy food. Also, I wanted to be more respectful with the nature and I decided to make them out of reused fabric. In this tutorial I used two different fabrics. The transparent one is from an old scarf (Wich is useful to see what is inside). The other one is an old bed sheet. These is also a good option because is easy to find it and from one bed sheet you can make lots of bags (and is 100% cotton!!). In my case, the lace is also reused from an old art project.

It´s a very easy tutorial. If you´re a beginner, I recommend you to use the bed sheet fabric because is easier to sew it. The other one is very flexible.

Materials (is they are reused, better):

-Fabric

-Lace

Supplies:

-Sewing machine (recommended)

-Thread

-Scissors

-Ruler

-Needles

-Pins/ sewing tweeze

You decide the size of your bags. I decided to do some different sizes like: 15x16cm, 15x21cm, 20x25cm...

If you decide to do one of 15x16 cm, for example, you should cut a piece of 17x33cm. Cutting in this way, you leave 0,5cm to sew the hem and 1,5cm to sew the top part (Where you´ll introduce your lace latter).

I decided to use the S1 C sewing pattern of my machine. You can choose whatever you want. I personally chose that because is very resistant and I use this bags a lot.

Sewing the top part is very easy. You have to bend the fabric 1,5cm and sew it in the side so you can latter introduce the lace.

Sewing the sides is also very simple. You just put the sides of the fabric together and sew the as in the corner as you can.

IMPORTANT! When you are sewing near to the top part you can´t sew that. That is because in he next step you´ll have to introduce the lace and you´ll need to have the hole.

To know the exact measure of the lace, you just have to measure it by eye. It has to be 3 cm longer than the whole round of the bag, as you can see in the photo.

The best and easiest way to introduce it is with a safety pin. You can put the lace inside and is rigid so you don´t loose it.

When you introduce it, you must have to make a knot to maintain it there.

Voilá! If you have reached this step, congratulations! As you can see, it´s a very easy and useful project. And if you reuse the materials, is also almost free!