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DIY no-sew farmers’ market bag from a T-shirt

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Rejoice! Plastic shopping bags are rapidly disappearing in grocery stores and at farmers’ markets far and wide. This means that ocean life will be safer and, in turn, we will not be eating fish that have ingested our garbage.

For many of us, the shift from plastic to “bring your own bag” seems to have happened overnight. Some of us were not prepared and even went to the grocery store without a bag. (I’m speaking about a friend, of course.) If you are one of the less prepared, here’s a quick DIY bag you can make at home, easily carry anywhere and even launder.

You will need the following supplies:

Cotton T-shirt, one that isn’t too stretchy

Scissors

Fabric Glue (At Walmart it’s called Fabri-tac and at Callicoon Supply it’s called Multi-Purpose glue. It’s essentially a cold hot glue. No glue gun is necessary.)

  1. Turn the T-shirt inside out.
  2. Fold the T-shirt in half lengthwise. Tip: It helps to press the T-shirt before folding and cutting, but for those of you who don’t want to drag out the ironing board and iron (like me), you may ignore this tip.
  3. Cut the shape shown in figure one.
  4. Clip into the fold as shown. This creates ventilation. You want ventilation for fruit, flowers and vegetables. Tip: Don’t make the vent clips too big or else all your fruit will fall through the ventilation holes.
  5. Continue to fold and clip into the shirt as desired, but don’t go crazy. Leave at least two inches between clips and, again, make the clips small.
  6. Along with the vent clips, slice a handle in the curved part as shown in figure two.
  7. Using fabric glue, carefully glue the lower edge of the T-shirt closed.
  8. Let dry.
  9. Turn the bag right side out.
  10. Fill the bag to your heart’s desire. The bag will stretch a bit when you fill it but that’s to be expected. If you made the ventilation slits too big, start again. You’ll get it after a while.

The rewards of creating your very own DIY T-shirt bag:

You will be the envy of all.

You can now make dozens of these for yourself and your friends.

Finally you can repurpose all those unwanted but sentimental T-shirts.

You can make colorful bags whenever needed.

You’ll be getting rid of old T-shirts and creating market bags at the same time.

You can roll them up and take them anywhere.

With every bag you make, a fish, turtle or perhaps even a dolphin is saved.

diy, cloth bag, farmers' markets

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