Shopping Bags

Another project I recently finished was to make some re-usable shopping bags. Last New Years we committed to using fewer plastic shopping bags in 2008. Usually this means I stuff them fuller at the store so I use less (this freaks out the baggers at Target for some reason) or I forgo them all together and just put the item in my purse, but at the grocery store it’s a different story. Those tactics just don’t cut it. It was time to get some re-usable shopping bags. I have several canvas bags but they are all different sizes (most pretty small) but I wanted something less bulky. While in Seattle last March I found a nylon bag I really liked at the packaging store. Problem was it was $20 and I needed at least 6 of them (we buy a lot of groceries at one time). It looked like a simple design so I decided to make some. I bought some rip-stop nylon while in town too and then waited for some free time to get started back in NY. First I took apart the store-bought bag. As I ripped out seams I took pictures and made notes on the construction. Once the seams were all out I traced the old bag onto some tissue paper to make a pattern.

Then I cut a bag out of the rip stop nylon and began sewing it in the reverse order that my notes stated. I referred to the photos when I had questions or got confused. It worked great! The bag was easy and turned out nice looking and sturdy! Once I knew it would work I cut and sewed the rest of the fabric. I have 6 bags for now but recently got some more nylon in gray to make a few more. Recently I tried them all out at the grocery store.
PERFECT! They held all the groceries, all fit in the cart and are strong enough to carry a lot of weight. Here is my bag on the left and the original template bag on the right. I just need to find a way to give mine a nice looking print too!