Monday, April 11, 2011

Plastic Bag Holder

What do you do with all the plastic grocery bags you get from the store?  Do you just throw them out?  Do you use cloth bags (if so, power to you!), or do you put them in one place to use later?  We use ours to wrap poopy diapers and as liners for the small bathroom garbages.  But how to keep them organized so it doesn't overwhelm you and make you want to scream when you try to get a bag?  A bag holder!  Hold on, we're watching our money and every penny counts, that's money we could use to buy diapers for the kids to poop in and require the need of the organized bags!  That's where it's handy to be resourceful and a little creative!  This is my bag holder!  (My apron is behind it if you're wondering) It probably took me an hour to make (that's an hour of actually working on it, start to finish was much longer since I kept having to do other things like make dinner, feed the baby, and so on).  It was really simple. 
I used some scrap fabric from non-flattering and worn out clothes, and some yarn I had sitting around that needed a job.  the fabric I wanted to use was only usable in small strips so I sewed the strips together to make a big rectangle, about  20 inches wide and 24 inches long.  You can change this to your own needs, but this worked for us! 
I folded the two shorter sides over about 3/4 of an inch and sewed them as close to to non folded edge as I could, this made two long, tube-like pockets. 
Then I folded the fabric longways, so the tubed pockets were on the top and bottom with right sides together. 
Starting AFTER the first pocket, I sewed a straight seam that ended BEFORE the other pocket, you don't want to sew your pockets closed!
Then I took my yarn and made two crocheted chains about 9 inches long.  Pieces of yarn or elastic that long work fine too, I just did yarn because I had no elastic, and the chain gave me a little elasticity.
TIP:  If you have a worn out fitted sheet that you're wanting to use for something else, the elastic from that would be great in this project!
To get the elastic or yarn to go into the tube like pockets, put a safety pin through the end and then you can wriggle it through by feeling it.  This works much better that tying to jam or hook it through with a crochet hook (I speak from experience).
Tie the yarn or sew the ends of elastic together.
Next, I tied some more yarn to the top yarn to make a loop I could hang it from.
Easy cheasy lemon squeazy!  Stuff bags in the top, pull them out from the bottom!

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