Sew Cloth Grocery Bags


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Sew Cloth Grocery Bags Media Photos

No pattern required!

Detailed instruction with photos and illustrations.

More than 30 charts to help you lay out panels with minimal waste.

Use scraps from your stash or repurposed drapes or tablecloths!

Choose from two designs: the easy “boxed” bag and the elegant tailored bag.

Plastic grocery bags are on their way out. They’re a littering hazard and a terrible use of limited resources. Many communities have passed laws banning them, and stores have taken to charging you for them. The solution: Make your own tough, high-quality bags from cloth. Cloth bags can be washed, repaired, and will last you a lifetime. They are also not hard to make if you have a sewing machine and basic sewing skills.

You also need “Sew Cloth Grocery Bags,” the one-stop solution where you can learn to make dozens of bags using either the efficient “boxed” bag or the intuitive tailored bag. Teresa Peschel, an experienced home sewer who has made hundreds of these bags for her Peschel Press publishing business, sits down with you and describes in detail and with shortcuts how you can turn new or salvaged fabric into sturdy and sellable cloth grocery bags.

* How to source your material from fabric stores and thrift shops
* How to prepare it for sewing
* How to cut the panels with minimal waste fabric
* What to use for the straps
* How to sew six or even a dozen bags at a time without losing your mind.

Peschel also provides you with expert advice for unusual situations such as piecing together bags from scraps, fabric that bunches up while sewing, and dealing with fabric that has a clear direction. There are even chapters on setting up your own business selling bags at craft shows and art fairs.

“Sew Cloth Grocery Bags” is an easy-to-understand guide to making market bags that helps you make a more sustainable future for you and your family.

About the Author

Teresa Peschel lives with her family, her dog Muffy, and a mostly useless cats in the Sweetest Place on Earth. She has long been interested in sustainability, resource depletion, and finding a balanced life, not too much and not too little. Why take more than you need when other people and animals need lives and space too?

See Teresa on Good Day PA!

Teresa went on ABC27’s “Good Day PA” show for two segments! She talked about how she came to sew cloth grocery bags and described the two types in the first segment, then she demonstrated how to use fabric origami with an iron to make the tailored bag.