Fabric Grocery Bags Shopping Totes

Seems like I blinked and here we are at the end of August already! I have lots of new projects from July and August to share - some were gifts and some are new additions to my shops. I'll try to catch up on the blog over the next week or two.

These fabric grocery bags/shopping totes were requested as a shower gift for a bride-to-be in July. I was left on my own to select a fabric. Usually I try to find out something about the recipient, such as their favorite color or hobby or occupation, so I can choose a theme that suits them. This time, I had only a few general suggestions, so I decided to go shopping and let the fabric be the inspiration.

While browsing the home dec fabrics, I found this NYC print. The bride and groom are both from New York so the images of the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and other iconic images from Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island - ferries, buses, hot dog carts, bikes, buildings and bridges - seemed like an appropriate theme.

The colors are kind of a modern retro blend of aqua, orange, red and olive with black, gray and tan. I decided to use black thread for all the topstitching. Here are all four bags folded and stacked:

And of course, they needed a zippered bag with a wrist strap to tote and store all four bags when not in use:

Want to make some grocery bags for yourself? I made my first batch of reusable grocery bags and posted about how to make them shortly after I started this blog in 2007. They're designed to be extra large to carry several half-gallon cartons of milk and the biggest cereal box. I prefer to use cotton home dec fabrics for my bags so they can be easily washed and dried, which is especially important for carrying food and groceries.

edited:
Dec-16-2018 Replace SewAmazin Flickr photos with Google photos