Reusable (Recycle) Grocery Bags

My favorite bag

My Reusable (Recycle) Grocery Bags are finally done! The original idea came from Elizabeth Kartcher and this post of hers.

Here is my fabric that I bought from Joann's.

These are my bags. I bought them (wholesale) through our work so they were only $2.50 a bag. They are Port and Company brand which you can also purchase at Amazon.com. Bags measures 13w x 15.5h x 7d. I couldn't find any black bags like the ones I was trying to copy, so I bought these instead.

The bags are very sturdy and hold 2 gallons of milk side by side.

I used this pattern and enlarged it by 129%. Then I cut out the arrows in each color of fabric. Make sure the fabric is NOT right sides together. All the fabric must be facing the same way or you will have arrows facing the wrong way (I learned that the hard way). The arrows measure approximately 7" x 3 1/2", so you can get 12 arrows on a 1/4 of a yard of 45" fabric. (I'm still not sure why I bought 2 yards of each color!!)

I placed the arrows on each bag approximately 3" down from the top of the bag, and 2" in on each side. I tried holding the arrows down with pins, but that did work too well, so I used some temporary fabric glue to hold them down. I am sure heat and bond will work just as well.

Here's all the bags ready to be sewn! I stiched about 1/8" to 1/4" around the edges of the arrows. It took me about 10-15 minutes to sew each one (I made 10 bags total).

Here's a couple of my favorite color combinations.

Now I just need to go grocery shopping with them!