This is a very little but mighty project of mine. I am using my DIY veggie bag every time I go shopping. It follows the principles of recycling, reusing, repurposing, and helps reduce plastic use. All the best outcomes of DIY. Let’s see how I made my multi-purpose DIY bags.

Before getting into the craft let me tell you – I love charity shops! And just behind the corner from the place I live, we have a YMCA charity shop in Zabbar. It became my main spot for donations, as well as shopping. Before I buy something new I always try to find a used alternative if possible. The volunteer at the shop is an angel, always ready to help, advise or just have a chit-chat if that’s what you need. I told her as I am looking for some cheap textiles to practice sewing, and she went back to her car to bring me a batch of clothes that were in too bad condition to be put for sale (and basically their life is over), and offer them for free! I am still very grateful as this particular project happened thanks to this girl and the old mesh gown I got.

You can use in this project any textiles, I am super happy with how they came out from the polyester, mesh fabric from the recycled old gown.

You will need:

• textile
• scissors
• sewing machine or needle for hand sewing + thread
• some kind of a rope or wool to close the bag

DIY

The first step will be to cut out any size of rectangle your heart desires. I cut out as many as I could from the fabric I had, in total had 6 different sizes of rectangles. Remember as the bag will be half of the size of a rectangle, minus the seam allowance.

Fold your rectangle in half sew the bottom and aside to create a bag shape.

Now I fust folded the edge around (in a way that the top edge is folded outside all around on both sides of the bag) and sew it leaving +/- 1 cm space to create a tunnel for a rope. I was sewing it on a machine, so it was important not to go fully all around but to leave a tiny hole at the end to be able to insert the rope.

I inserted a cotton rope using a safety pin. Secure it at the end and the bag was ready! One of the quickest and easiest DIYs!

Multi-purpose mesh bag

I found for them multiple uses around the house. It’s easy to wash them and store them as they don’t take any space when folded. They serve me well for:

• Shopping veggies and fruits – instead of using plastic bags from the store I try to always have with me a couple of mesh bags. It’s easy to see the products through so it helps the cashier to identify the veg,
• Keeping together small items in the washing machine.
• Storing cosmetics when going to the gym.

And what do you think about making your own multi-purpose bags?

If you would like to check out more of my DIY projects, click here!