Home >> t-shirt shopping bags

OK, it’s time to share the how-to on my shopping bag idea. Since I’ve discovered that I’m not the only one who has figured out that T-shirts make great shopping bags and I’m not going to make a million-dollars doing these, I’m sharing.

Here it goes:

Cut the neck and arms off of the shirt, leaving about 1/4 inch of cloth along with the seam on the sleeve.

Next, turn in-side-out and fold the sides over about 2 inches on each side.

Sew 2 seams across the bottom for extra strength.
Tug on all the raw edges and the fabric will curl so you don’t have to hem.
Turn it right side out and fold the shoulder seams in, then stitch across each to triple the top which forms the top of each handle:

Whala! In about 8 minutes, you have a very strong shopping bag.

Pick out cool tie-dye shirts for the full flower-child effect. I get mine at thrift shops for roughly .75 cents each. Cashiers at the grocery store love these bags. They won’t rip and they are great for carrying watermelons or gallons of milk…everything! Best of all, they are recycled, easy to wash, and much easier to carry than a plastic shopping bag.

Make about 10 of them for your shopping trips. Be green and be cool! The hardest part is remembering to keep the bags in the car and actually bring them to the store. I especially like to take them to Aldi and skip the quarter-in-the-cart routine if I have only a few items to get. Just sling these bags over your shoulder and load them up while you shop. (Hey, did you know that Aldi and Trader Joe’s are owned by the same company? Paul just saw it in the Chicago Tribune‘s business section last week!)

This is a great project for kids who are just learning to sew. You can’t goof it up. It would be a great camp or scout project by using just needle and thread as opposed to a bunch of sewing machines. Kids could learn how to sew by hand…a slowly dying craft.

Posted in making stuff, recreating, recycling | 2 Comments »