Friday, September 6, 2019

Reusable produce bags

My daughter and I often do our grocery shopping together and an issue that we face, like millions of other people, is what to do with the plethora of plastic bags we've collected over time. I remember about 20 years ago when older women started crocheting hats from strips of plastic grocery bags. I made the suggestion to Loren but she wasn't too excited about reliving that fashion statement.

The bags we've collected so far will probably go to the closest recycling bin but we've both decided it's best for us to avoid bringing it into our homes in the first place. Our goal, reusable bags of all sorts.

Yesterday I spent the evening making 18 reusable produce bags for both of us, they ended up costing about 25 cents each.


Fairly straightforward technique. Netting sewn into squares or rectangles with a drawstring. Yes the netting is made out of some sort of plastic but I hope they last for a while. I also plan on recycling them into dish scrubbies once they start falling apart. They should be fairly easy to keep clean, hand wash in hot soapy water and hang outside to dry.

Similar bags can be found on Amazon and/or ebay and they seem fairly inexpensive.

I am looking for a different, more eco-friendly, fabric for next time but these bags are weighed with the produce/bulk items so it needs to be a lightweight fabric. One of the larger bags I made from the netting weighs just over a quarter of an ounce, very light indeed. It will most likely be used for celery, kale, leafy greens and they're not usually sold by weight so it shouldn't be a factor in the cost.

Next week I'm hoping to make reusable grocery bags from these cotton fabrics...


I'm going to line the bags with muslin to add strength. I'm hoping to get at least 6 nice sized bags, possibly with enough bits of fabric to add pockets either on the inside or outside of the bags.


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