Re-usable Shopping bags

My husband flips houses and in one of the houses was 20 pillowcases that he brought me.  Now, I didn't need 20 pillowcases, but I did need some reusable shopping bags and tote bags.  Chances are, you have some extra pillowcases laying around the house doing nothing, so why not repurpose them?  Here's how:

Materials:

 

Procedure:

  1. Take a pillowcase and lay it flat on the floor or a table.  Determine how large you want your bag to be. Cut off the top of the pillowcase (the part that is open), leaving enough extra on the main body of the pillowcase for a hem.  If you want to make it extra-strong, cut two pillowcases and place one inside of the other.
  2. Fold the top over twice, allowing for a hem of about 1/2 inch wide and sew around. 
  3. Take the top part of the pillowcase you cut off.  The natural hem of the pillowcase will serve as your handle.
  4. Cut the excess material off close to the natural hem of the pillowcase. Cut the piece into two pieces for handles.
  5. Sew each piece in half length-wise to make the handles strong.
  6. Sew the handles to the bag.

This bag is made of two pillowcases.  Note that for the hem, I folded over both at once and then sewed the hem.

Making bags out of pillowcases not only uses up any extra laying around the house taking up space, but also provides you with a reusable tote that is easy to wash, and can be used for shopping, the beach, collecting Halloween candy, or anything else you can imagine.

Copyright © 2010 RBG & More!

 

 

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