Reusable Shopping Bag Tutorial

I love to make these reusable shopping bags and have adapted a pattern by 40% to come up with this pattern.

You will need:

1 piece of fabric and lining 18” by width of the fabric for the bag

1 piece of fabric 4” by width of fabric for the handle

Interfacing for handles, bag and lining. The interfacing I use is a lightweight one but I have used craft weight when I wanted the bag to stand up on its own.

Note: My interfacing is 60” wide so I cut two pieces 18” by wide of the interfacing and one piece 4” by the width of the interfacing. If you are using 22” wide interfacing you will need to cut your pieces so they run down the length of the interfacing and you will need just over 84” of interfacing. You will be able to cut out the handles from the left over pieces.

Prep Work

• Lay the lining and the outer fabric on top of each other so the folds are even. Cut off the selvage at the smaller piece so both are the same size.
  

I do these next steps first while the outer fabric is being embroidered.

• Cut the selvage off the handle pieces and cut it into 2 pieces. Iron on the interfacing.
  
  

• Fold each of the handles in half and press.
  
  

 

• Open and then fold each edge to the center. Press.
  
  

• Press closed and stitch on both sides using a longer stitch.
  
  

I put pins on the top side of the handles. This is the side of the handles that will show.

• Take the lining and interface it.
  
  
• Pin the sides together and stitch leaving a 5-6” opening in the middle part.
  
  
• Press the seam open
  
  

By now the embroidery is done and we can start working on the outer fabric.

That will be tomorrow………………..