Tutorial: Reusable produce bags

So, a few days ago I mentioned making some reusable produce bags, which turned out awesome! They're pretty handy and it's an awesome way to avoid using a million plastic bags at the grocery store. Plus since they're breathable, they help keep veggies from getting mushy from excess moisture. I thought I would whip up a little tutorial for them! Here we go!

Step one: Cut a rectangle out of a breathable, meshlike fabric. I've had whatever this is sitting around for years now, from the days when I used to do broke-ass silk screening (before I discovered the glory of freezer paper). It's like a nylon, mesh but not as open of a weave like tulle. I imagine that pretty much any light meshlike fabric would work for this. I pretty much just randomly hacked a bunch of rectangles, but they all came out approximately 12" x 24", although you can of course make them to whatever size you like.

Step two: Serge or hem the top and bottom of your rectangle. Because I didn't feel like dealing with the fabric fraying, this provided motivation for me to get the ol' serger working again, which I did to some relative degree of success.

Step three: Fold your rectangle in half and pin up the sides. You may note my complete lack of ironing, which comes from both my laziness and my desire to make these as quickly and easily as possible, as things have a way of getting lost or destroyed around here to the point that I would be incredibly surprised if I have any of these three months from now. But, you know, if you wanna iron, you go ahead and do your thing.

Step four: Sew up the sides, leaving the top open.

Step five: To make the casing for your drawstring, fold down the top about half an inch, pin, and sew.

Step six (which I forgot to take a picture of, sorry): Use a seam ripper to open up a couple stitches on on one side seam of the casing. Thread a ribbon or rope or whatever you'd like to use through your casing, and secure the two ends together with some stitches.

Turn rightside out, and you're done! Hooray!

Now fill with delicious fruits and veggies and store in the fridge. Look at that poor lonely lemon.

Anyway, I hope that was pretty clear. I've only ever written one or two tutorials before, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

We're going to be aht of tahn (check out that Pittsburghese) for a few days for Eric's dad's retirement for the Air Force, so I'll see you next week!