Recycle & Repurpose

That is the mantra these days. I feel that pang of guilt if I toss or discard items into the trash. It is important to take what we already have and find alternate uses, isn’t it!

I especially hate those plastic bags at the grocery store. I hope that soon we will see those banned but in the meantime we must all find alternate ways to tote our groceries around.

I’ve been collecting some pretty old pillowcases here and there with the intention of turning them into quick and easy tote bags for groceries, etc. I finally sat down the other night and put one together and I’m pleased with the results, a nice sturdy bag that will tote your groceries and it can be tossed into the washer when necessary.

I combined two pillowcases to make this bag sturdy.

I used a paper grocery bag as a guide for my measurements.

First I stacked the pillowcases and cut off the bottoms to an even length.

I cut them about six inches longer than the grocery bag.

Next I just stitched across the bottom of each case.

Then I took the case that was for the lining and turned it wrong side out and inserted it inside the other case. Then holding the cases together with the hemmed edges together at the top I turned them inside out. The lining case was now on the outside and the floral case is on the inside and they have wrong sides together.

Now holding them together I folded the corners so they made a point and stitched across each one about 4 inches from the tip. I am stitching through both cases here, the floral one is inside.

Next I folded these points along the stitching line up towards the sides and tacked them in place. This creates a box bottom for the bag.

With the left over fabric from the floral case I cut two strips 3 inches wide.

Here you see the strips just as I cut them from the leftover case, therefore each strip is double. I just folded each double strip in half lengthwise and sewed a 1/2 inch seam along the long edge. Using my fasturn I turned the strips right side out to form two tubes. (each tube is 2 layers of fabric) I ironed the tubes flat and topstitched along each long edge.

Next I inserted the tubes between the two cases along the top edges, spacing them about 5 inches apart and centered. I pinned these in place and sewed both pillowcases together along the top, already hemmed, edge. I stitched again over the handles to reinforce. Voila!

I think this project took about 20 minutes. Doubling up the pillowcases makes these very sturdy.

The pillowcase challenge over at Handmade Parade is what got me thinking about this project.

I had another idea for recycling those pretty vintage pillowcases and this one I have entered in the contest. I think the simplicity of this is it’s strongest feature and it used up almost the entire pillowcase.

This is a dust cover for the sewing machine. My machine sits out all the time and collects a ton of dust even though I use it almost every day. Actually I think I am creating most of that dust when I sew!

23 thoughts on “Recycle & Repurpose”

20 minutes! It would take me 20 hours or more! I wish I knew how to sew. This is a great idea – you should offer some in your shop.
I agree on the plastic bags. Trader Joe’s has funky reusable bags that I leave in my car at all times for trips to the grocery store, pharmacy, Target, etc. The bagger at the grocery store always looks at me like I’m crazy but I’m seeing more and more people using reusable bags.
Cheers,
Karla

Share this:

Related

23 thoughts on “Recycle & Repurpose”

Leave a comment x