When I was at the farmers market and picking out some organic vegetables and fruits I often had no option than to put the veggies and fruits into a plastic bag or most vendors put the vegetables right in these plastic bags to be able to weigh them better. Not only that these plastic bags are thin and easily torn, they expose your food to the dangers of plastic and have a negative impact of the environment.

Right now there are many non-plastic options of produce bags to purchase in almost every online shop. But did you know that you could make them extremely easy and quick by yourself? Really…I even spent more time to messure and cut the fabrics then I actually sewed. Plus, you don't need excellent sewing skills. Only some basic skills are required for this DIY project.

No matter which fabrics you will use, I will show you how to make your own reusable non-plastic produce bags to take them along on you next shopping trip. The good thing is that you can repurpose worn and actually discarded garments like old T-Shirts.

Since I always donate my discarded clothes to charity stores or to a wardrobe/costume rental, I have bought plain relatively lightweight cotton, but as I told you before, an old T-Shirt or any other lightweight fabrics you already have will work well. Just have in mind that your bags will be weighed along with your produce so you shouldn't add more weight than necessary.

The plain cotton fabric was the best to wok with. I also did some bags of cross stitch fabric but they are a little bit too heavy. So the plain cotton is what I would recommend especially fo beginners.

What do you need:

• sewing machine

• scissors

• measuring tape

• thread

• safety pin

• iron for pressing the hems and seams (it’s not necessary but helpful)

• sewing pins

• fabrics

• cable cord or ribbon

DIY produce bag directions:

1.) Lay your fabric out.

2.) Fold the fabric crosswise with the right sides together, and cut out a rectangle of 30 cm x 40 cm along the fold (for further details check out the photo)

3.) First clean 2 vertical and one horizontal fabric edges with zickzack stitch or overlook stitch. I’m luckily still owner of an old overlock machine, which my parents gave it to me for my education as a tailor. So I clean the fabric edges with the overlock machine.

4.) Along the top edge dopple fold (2cm/2cm) to the wrong side, press it with iron and secure it with sewing pins.

5.) Stitch down the folded edge all the way on the wrong side, as you can see on the photo below. Like that way you create a normal hemline or the casing you will need later for the drawstring.

6.) Then fold again the right sides together to close the seams at the side and bottom. On one vertikal side you have the fold, so you don’t need to close it. You just need to close the opposite vertical seam and the horizontal seam with ca. 0,5 cm seam allowance. At the vertical seam you start right under the hemline. It’s important that you don’t close the aperture of the hem because later you will insert a cable cord. When you start and end the seam go some stitches back and forth to secure the seam.

7.) The bag is almost done. All you have to do is to flip the bag to the right side. Make sure that all the angles come out nicely, you can press them out a little bit from the inside with the tip of the scissors.

8.) When all angles are equal you can iron the bag completely.

9.) Cut a cable cord long enough to go all the way around the bag through the casing and make sure that you have enough left to knot the ends together.

10.) Put the safety pin through one knotted end of the cord and use it to insert the cord through the casing.

11.) Tie both ends together with a knot.

12.) You can also do another typ of closure. This kind of bag is more for bread, legumes, seeds or nuts. Take a plain cotton ribbon. Fold in 2cm at one of the ends of the ribbon and place it with sewing pins facing the 2cm on the right side of the bag’s fabric in the center of the bag. Make sure that you just grab one layer of the bag’s fabric.

13.) Sew the attached part of the ribbon on the fabric as you can see it on the photo below.

14. The other end of the ribbon you can fold in twice for 1 cm and sew the edge down with a straight stitch of the sewing machine. Don’t forget to secure the seam with a forth and back stitch in the beginning and end.

15.) This way is almost the easiest way to create a closure. You just wrap the ribbon around the fabric and make a knot that the bag don’t get open.

That’s it, your reusable non-plastic produce bags are ready!!! As you see I added my “Look2 Ocean” label. If you have a label too, don’t hesitate to add it. It’s a good option to personalize your bags.

Now by knowing how you make these reusable produce bags, you can let your creativity run and make the bags in different sizes, fabrics and colors. You can even embroider them if you like.

I hope this DIY will help you to switch to reusable non-plastic produce bags, because it’s an easy way to reduce plastic in your daily life.

Are you also changing you every day life to a more plastic free life? What other changes have you to avoid plastic? Because as I have just started to change my life, I’m always happy for some new tips and ideas.

Leave a comment!

Thank you very much fo passing by and stay tuned for some more sustainable DIY’s soon on my blog.

Love,

Katy!

Pics and text by Look2 Ocean