Counting Down to Opening Day

There are just a few more days until my official Grand Opening in April, so I thought I'd share a few posts about the handmade items I've already listed and preview some of the others that will be added soon.

When I began thinking about selling things that I make, one of the first that came to mind was Reusable Grocery Bags. I first wrote about making them way back in September 2007! I've made quite a few of these bags since then and they've always been well received.

So when I decided to have a Giveaway last month, it was an easy decision to make more grocery bags and jazz them up a little. I gave away two sets of bags earlier this month, but I saved a pair of bags to sell on ArtFire as part of my Grand Opening. This Reusable Grocery Bag/Shopping Tote was sold in my ArtFire studio:

I really like the way these turned out, and not just because these are some of my favorite colors! The floral design is a home decor cotton fabric remnant that was in my stash for about a year. I knew as soon as I brought it home it was going to be a bag, but a single yard was not enough to make even one complete grocery bag. There was just enough of that fabric to make the handles and add an accent strip to the turquoise base fabric.

I've incorporated a few improvements to my original design - the handles are padded with batting and are attached securely. Another new feature - each bag can be folded up and fastened into a tidy little package to keep in your car or handbag. The snap closure can be removed entirely if desired; the snap on the outside of the bag won't snag on other fabrics or objects like velcro or a button might. Folding instructions are included.

 

These shopping bags are very sturdy; the seams are all reinforced, with no raw edges showing. Each bag is about 13" tall by 12" wide by 8" deep and will accommodate large cereal boxes as well as several half-gallon cartons of milk. There is no seam on the bottom, so they can be filled with a heavy load of groceries and there's no worrying about losing the contents.

And they're machine-washable - in fact, the fabrics were washed and dried once before construction and the finished bags have been through a wash and dry, so there should not be any shrinkage.

In addition to groceries, these can be used as book bags or as a gift bag for a large item, instead of a paper gift bag.

edited:
Dec-16-2018 Replace SewAmazin Flickr photos with Google photos; edit old links