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Sewing a Tote Bag

 
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The store bought tote bags/ reusable grocery bags have become crap. The Recycled Plastics fabric deteriorates quickly and the seams are often not tied off so the open up.
Does anyone have a method or pattern for turning old t-shirts, shirts, jeans or whatever into a strong and durable Grocery Tote?
 
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A bunch of bags people have made were discussed here:   Cloth Shopping Bags?
The ones I have made and would tell you about are in there, as are other types

:D
 
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Here are some ideas

https://permies.com/t/86763/Cloth-Shopping-Bags

Our city switched to reusable grocery bags about a dozen or so years ago.  It took a while for grocery stores to get the recycled plastic bags right.  The first few versions deteriorated in the car in about two months.  It's really annoying because these cost customers $10.  The city came down hard on the grocery stores as this didn't fit the definition they used for reusable.

The new recycled grocery bags last about 10 years in the car and weekly uses before they begin to deteriorate.  These cost $2 for the customer.

But I like the cloth ones better as they are more comfortable and are repairable.   We have some we've been using 20 odd years now.
 
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I was fortunate to find a lot of nice heavy canvas shopping bags at thrift stores...seems like there were a lot for awhile a few years back.

an easy t shirt one that will hold a lot and last well, is to sew across the bottom (hemline) and then remove the sleeves and neckline...so you have two handles....smaller t shirts are better as these knit bags stretch a lot so a large t shirt makes a really large bag...more like a laundry bag😊

I think there might be photos of this in the thread pearl mentions above.
 
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If you sew your own, you can earn a badge bit for the SkIP program. Just head over here: https://permies.com/wiki/128025/Sew-grocery-bags-PEP-BB
 
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