It’s no secret that Teacher and I try to make “green” choices whenever we can, and the holidays are no exception. Here are some quick and easy my two favorite words besides “chocolate” and “coffee” to greenify your holiday season:

• Think layers. Your furnace probably uses some sort of fossil fuel to keep you warm. Help conserve resources and reduce global warming by turning the temperature down a degree or two and dressing in layers to keep warm. Wearing shoes or slippers, cuddling under a comforter, and snuggling with your Honey can also help you keep warm. Snuggling is a stress reducer – who couldn’t use less stress during the holidays?
• Waste not, want not. Leftovers take up refrigerator space, energy to keep them cool, and landfill space when they’re tossed out instead of eaten. When planning holiday meals, calculate quantities carefully to eliminate leftovers, freeze leftovers for later use, or plan meals that will use up the leftovers before they go bad. We’ve learned that almost anything can be made into pizza – even cranberry sauce makes a great dessert pizza!
• Go for seconds, and thirds, and… Reuse items until they’re used up. Save this year’s Christmas cards to use as gift tags next year. Reuse mailing boxes and envelopes by removing the stamps and taping new address information over the old. Save tissue paper and bows to reuse again next year. You get the idea…
• Choose cloth over paper and plastic. Tis the season to be shopping, but don’t get so distracted by decking the hall and being jolly that you forget your reusable shopping bags! Stash a few in your car or purse so you’ll be ready for eco-friendly shopping at the drop of a santa hat.
• BYOB here, there, and everywhere. Staying hydrated is important during the winter, but don’t waste your money and the Earth’s resources on bottled water. Most bottled water is just filtered tap water from somewhere else, so save money by using tap water from your own house! Invest in a water pitcher with a filter and a couple of reusable water bottles, and you’ll be good to go.
• Embrace the dark. Instead of trying to fight off the dark with lots of light, embrace the extra hours of darkness. Turn off the lights in rooms you’re not using and use fewer lights in rooms you are using. Plan to get work done during the daylight hours so you can dim the lights and relax when darkness falls.
• Lose the junk. As in junk mail. Catalogs multiply like rabbits around the holidays, but instead of recycling which uses energy the ones you don’t want, eliminate them by calling the company and asking to be taken off their mailing list. You save energy and make sure there’s room in the mailbox for things you really want – like that necklace and earring set at Etsy that you couldn’t resist.

So there you have it; a few easy ways to have an Earth-friendly holiday season.

What are your favorite tips? How do you greenify your holiday celebrations?

Last year I posted a tutorial showing how to make reusable sandwich and snack bags using cotton fabric and PUL (polyurethane laminate). Since I realize that not everyone has PUL readily available and it’s generally not considered food-safe, I decided to look for an alternative that would be easier for the average seamstress to get her hands on.

Enter ripstop nylon! I’d heard that ripstop nylon was somewhat waterproof, but to be honest, at first I didn’t believe it. Little Guy changed my mind when he filled one of his ripstop nylon sandwich bags with water – the only dripping came from the seams; not from the bottom where the nylon was folded.

My local Joanns offers a nice ripstop nylon in several colors, but if yours doesn’t you can purchase it from Joanns.com too.

 
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Planting is my favorite part of gardening – I like it even more than harvesting the produce!

Every time I dig into the warm earth I’m taken back to my childhood when my grandma would give me a tray of annuals, trowel and half-full watering can, then point me to a section of her flower bed. I insisted on wearing a pair of her gardening gloves – no matter that they were too big for me – and remember how the scent of her lotion would mingle with the cotton of the gloves and the scent of the warm, rich earth. The sound of water being trickled into each hole like she taught me is still the same today as it was so many years ago, as is the hope and anticipation each little seedling represents.

During our traditional Mother’s Day trip to the greenhouse for annuals Teacher and I also picked up a couple of vegetable plants and seed packets for the garden. I don’t usually plant the garden until Memorial Day, but after all the work we did getting the soil ready I couldn’t wait to plant something new.

These little guys will hopefully grow into mighty tomato plants and produce lots of tomatoes for us.

Hopefully the marigolds will keep the rabbits out of my garden this year. I thought it was high enough they wouldn’t get in but I was dead wrong; last year they thought my garden was a fresh salad bar!

In addition to the marigolds I’ve got broccoli, cucumber, dill, another tomato, peppers, onions, and lots of seeds.

Here’s my garden plan. Yes, I know there are some plants outside of the garden; that’s because instead of planting a full square of those veggies I’m going to include some flowers as natural pest control.

I created my plan at GrowVeg.com. It’s a great site that lets you plan your garden the “drag and drop” way, and also has detailed information about tons of plants, built-in crop rotating guides, email reminders, and much more. So far I like the 30-day trial enough that I’m seriously thinking about subscribing.

I’ve got to take a moment to show you something else cool from GrowVeg.com: a plant list based on your garden plan. For each plant it tells you how many to buy, how many fit in a square foot, when to plant, and when to harvest. Cool, huh?

OK, back to the garden…

It’d been overcast all day, and as I started planting there was thunder in the distance. I wanted to get the plants and seeds in the ground before it rained so I wouldn’t have to water them and got done just as the first huge drops started falling.

I didn’t get a photo of the garden once I was done because I was thinking about dodging raindrops and getting inside before the heavens opened up. But I did get a photo of this…

Yikes, I’m glad I got inside before the storm hit! If I’d known hail was on the way I wouldn’t have planted anything. My poor, poor baby plants!

Stay tuned… I’m not done planting yet.

Last year Teacher built me a raised garden and I’d made a fumbling attempt at square foot gardening, but didn’t really know what I was doing.

When gardening season was over I vowed to spend time over the winter researching square foot gardening aka “SFG” and planning my garden for this summer. Wanna bet how far I got?

You’re right: not very far.

Winter flew by and spring arrived without my giving a single thought to my garden, so when Teacher offered to help me get the garden ready for planting I scrambled to do some research and put together a plan.

My Googling let me to My Square Foot Garden, and I fell in love at first sight. It’s got everything you need to know about SFG, plus growing-zone specific newsletters to let you know what to do when.

One of the first things we had to figure out was how to prepare the garden. If we were following strict SFG guidelines there wouldn’t be any “dirt” in the garden at all – instead we’d have equal parts peat moss, vermiculite and compost aka Mel’s Mix.

We already had dirt in the garden, but since it would be too much work to dig it all out and figure out where to put it we decided just to add peat moss, vermiculite, compost, and manure to the dirt.

Off to Menards!

Teacher did the math to figure out how much of everything we needed – it was a lot more than I expected, but I tend to underestimate. We also picked up some iron, fertilizer, and a new gardening fork for me! I know: it’s geeky that I’m excited about a new gardening fork.

Teacher decided to take some of the dirt out of one end of the garden to make sure there was room for all the stuff we were going to put in. We had to fill in some sunken areas around the egress window anyway, so this took care of two problems with one solution.

While Teacher was working on one end of the garden I dug up the plants that came up from last year and put them aside for replanting. The garlic fit perfectly in the boys’ wheelbarrow.

I ran out of containers for the strawberries and raspberries so I ended up putting some on one of the foam tiles from the patio.

Instead of trying to do the whole garden at once Teacher decided to add everything to one section at a time before moving to the next.

First he dumped the peat moss in. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but it was so windy that I was afraid the peat moss would fly away before we could get it mixed in.

Next the manure was dumped in. Manure from dairy cows, of course; what else would you expect in Wisconsin?

Then the compost.

We’d been hoping to use our own compost, but there were still big chunks of stuff in it. Teacher dug out a small shovelful without chunks to put in the garden so at least there was a little of our compost in there. He’s so sweet!

Finally Teacher dumped in the vermiculite and I prinkled fertilizer and iron over the entire area. Teacher moved to the next section; College Boy and I mixed the soil. I won’t say that it was easy work, but the gardening fork made it easier than using a shovel. I always used to rely on a cultivator, but if I’d known how well a gardening fork worked I’d have gotten one years ago!

The last section of the garden, finally! Next year we rent a tiller; turning the soil by hand is crazy.

By the time we’d gotten the whole garden turned we were tired and sore, but we weren’t done yet; the plants I’d dug out still needed to be replanted.

“Hello garlic! Are you happy to be back in the garden?”

“Hello little strawberries; please bear some fruit even though we dug you up and put you back.”

Finally all the plants were replanted and watered. It had only been three or four hours from the time we came home from Menards to the time the last plant was watered, but we were totally exhausted. It sounds easy to just “turn the soil” but trust me; it’s not.

We were so tired and hungry that we didn’t even clean up the yard.

Step Two: Planting. My favorite step!

Do you garden? Have you ever tried square foot gardening? What do you like to grow?

Want to see my new venture? I’ll give you a sneak peek – just because I like you best.

It’s a line of reusable products called Drumroll please…. ReUse ‘Ems.

I’ve gotten so many people asking where they can buy my reusable snack and sandwich bags, unpaper towels, and produce bags that I thought I’d start a line of reusable products and see how they sell.

So far it’s going s-l-o-w-l-y. I’ve got the domains: www.reuseems.com and www.reuse-ems.com, but don’t bother checking them out because there’s nothing there yet. I’ve also reserved “ReuseEms” at Etsy, but haven’t had time to set anything up there.

I’ve also got some reusable sandwich and snack bag sets waiting for me to take photos, and list them, but I haven’t had time yet. Story of my life – too much to do and not enough time. I’ll bet you’ve got some of that going on too.

I do have a logo already – and I think it’s rockin’!

Jeff from Snowfyre made it for me. Jeff is one of my favorite designers – not only does he do fantastic work, he’s incredibly affordable!

Here it is – what do you think?

Some of the samples Jeff made for me had a super-bright green with the pink. I liked the combo so much I’m toying with using those colors in the website. I haven’t decided what I want yet, which is part of the reason I still haven’t started building the site.

That, and the fact that there’s only 24 hours in a day – some of which I need to spend sleeping or I’ll be unbearable.

Trust me – you want me to sleep!

Warning! This post is about “feminine issues” and may contain too much information for some people. Proceed at your own risk.

M: “You women are gross.”
Me: “Prolly – why?”
M: “Cotton pads.”
Me: “What about them? They’re comfy.”
M: “You use them for two years?!”
Me: “Yeah, but you wash them in between.”
M: I still think it’s gross.”
Me: Maybe, but I like them.

To be fair I can’t blame him; the first time I read about cloth menstrual pads I thought they were pretty gross too. Working with kids I deal with some pretty nasty stuff like poop, puke and boogers, so not much grosses me out except blood and loose teeth. And those humongous centipedes with so many legs they look furry. *shudder*

So how did I end up falling in love with cloth pads?

It all started when Z-Man was a baby and I was reading everything I could find about cloth diapers. I was browsing a natural living forum and stumbled into the cloth pad area. My first reaction was “Oh gross!” but the number of women raving about cloth pads intrigued me so much I couldn’t stop reading.

Right about the same time Z-Man gave up his before-bed nursing sessions. After almost a two-year absence “Aunt Flo” returned. I’m one of the lucky mamas who doesn’t menstruate while breastfeeding – even when we cut back to just once a day. “Bummer!” I thought, “But no big deal.” I grabbed my trusty box of Tampax and went on with my life.

At least I tried to go on with my life but I had a problem: I could feel them. Trust me when I say that a tampon is not something you want to be feeling. “Bummer!” I thought, “But no big deal.” I grabbed my trusty package of Kotex pads and went on with my life.

At least I tried to go on with my life but I had another problem: all the moisture caused something similar to a baby’s diaper rash on my girly bits. Now I know why babies are so fussy when they’ve got diaper rash – owwwwwwww!

Now I didn’t know what to do. Aunt Flo was showing no signs of leaving any time soon, and neither of my usual options were working. In desperation I grabbed some scraps of fabric leftover from diaper-making, downloaded a free cloth pad pattern, and threw together a couple of cloth pads. They weren’t pretty, but they were really, really, really comfy. Partly cuz they were velour on top Best of all, the rash disappeared within a day!

I was hooked! I started building my own stash; downloading and purchasing patterns to make my own, and trading with other WAHMs to try their cloth pad styles. By the time Aunt Flo came around again I was ready! Not only was her visit more enjoyable because I had pretty and comfy pads to use, she didn’t hang around as long as usual.

I soon discovered that I had another problem; I didn’t know how to wash the cloth pads. I went back to the forum where I’d first discovered cloth pads and was grossed out again. Some women described soaking their used pads in water-filled “pad pots” under their bathroom sink. They said the water needs to be changed daily, but is good for watering houseplants so it won’t go to waste.

Yeah, right. I am SO not soaking bloody pads under my sink and watering my plants with the water. With my luck one of the kids would dump the whole thing out all over the floor, then I’d have a nasty mess to clean up on top of the awkward questions to answer.

I kept reading.

Several other posters recommended rinsing the pads with cool water in the sink after each use.

Ummm… no. That’s just too close to hand-washing for me. Besides, who’s got time to do that?

I kept reading.

Finally I one woman said she just washed her pads with her baby’s diapers. Since cloth pads are pretty much made of the same fabrics as cloth diapers this made a lot of sense to me. Finally – a system I could actually use.

Now that my Z-Man and Little Guy are out of diapers I wash my cloth pads with our towels. I still run a cold water rinse first, then wash on hot, but don’t generally do an extra rinse at the end like I did with diapers. So far it seems to be working well.

I’m the kind of girl who likes variety so I collected lots of different patterns to try, and even drafted one of my own. I briefly considered adding cloth pads to my product line, and stocked several at Lily Pad Landing, but I didn’t like making them as much as I liked making cloth diapers.

This is one of the cloth pads I stocked at Lily Pad Landing- it got rave reviews. At the time I was the only WAHM I knew of who added a heart or other design to the topstitching, but since then I’ve seen it other places.

I also started purchasing different types of cloth pads and doing trades with cloth pad WAHMs. Pietra of Homestead Emporium (which used to be Homemade Mama) has long been one of my very favorites. Not only does she make a luxurious pad, she’s a wonderful person too.

I did a trade with Sue of Pink Lemonade Shop for all these gorgeous pads. They’re not all mine; I got some to introduce Princess and Angel Face to cloth pads too.

Sue’s pads are fun because she often uses printed flannels and cottons on the back instead of just plain fleece.

I’ve heard great things about Anna and Go with the Flo for a long time but hadn’t gotten any to try until recently. I won these pads at the Fluff Factory charity auctions this year and am in love with them!

I guess that’s it then, I really have nothing more to say on the subject of cloth pads. I use them, I make them, I love them. They’re comfy, they’re fun, and they’re easy to care for.

Oh! I just remembered one more thing…

If you’re considering trying cloth pads I highly recommend you get the ones with wings; unless fishing a used pad out of the toilet is your idea of fun.

As you probably know by now, I’m a do-it-myself sort of gal, so when reusable snack bags hit my radar I thought “I can do that! But how do I make it better?

My biggest challenge was the closure. I wasn’t thrilled with snapping bags because Z-Man has a hard time with snaps, and since I’m a mean mom who makes him pack his own lunch he has to have bag he can use by himself. Another concern with snap closures that not many home sewing mamas have a snap press or access to one so they couldn’t make a snapped bag. Nope – snaps were definitely out.

Velcro is another popular closure option for reusable snack bags, but I wasn’t thrilled with it either. First of all, it’s stiff and would be scratchy on the inside. Secondly, velcro attract everything - like lint, crumbs, and other yuckies I don’t want near my kids’ food. But the deciding factor was imagining the boys opening a velcro bag in church: RRRRRIIIIPPPP!!! Talk about public humiliation!

One by one I eliminated several other options: drawstrings don’t close tightly enough for raisins or cheddar bunnies, zippers could have crumb issues, buttons are just dumb… Then I had a brainstorm – plastic sandwich bags!

Old fashioned plastic sandwich bags don’t have any closure, and since they’ve been around forever I figured they must have gotten something right. I grabbed a bag from the cupboard and gave it a thorough inspection.

After just one so-so attempt I figured it out, so without further ado I present:
Drumroll please…

How to Make a Reusable Snack (or Sandwich) Bag: The Tutorial

“*scattered applause*

Supplies to Make Reusable Snack Bags

• PUL*, nylon, or other waterproof fabric if you want a waterproof layer.
• Cotton fabric for the lining.
• Thread.
• Serger or sewing machine. I used my serger but you could get a similar effect by using an overcast stitch on your sewing machine, or even a zig-zag if you don’t have an overcast stitch.

*PUL hasn’t been approved by the FDA for use with food, which is why I lined my bags with cotton. You could use two layers of cotton or a layer of fleece instead of the PUL if you wish.

Make a Reusable Snack Bag – Step by Step

“By the way, you can also make reusable sandwich bags using the same technique; just cut your fabrics bigger than you would for a reusable snack bag.” Thank you, Captain Obvious, for that public service announcement.

Step 1: Cutting out the Pieces
The cheapie plastic sandwich bags we had measured 6 1/5″ wide and 7 1/5″ tall, but I’d noticed that they were too small for our bread-machine sandwiches so I wanted to make my bags bigger. I’d made a huge chart of common sizes for reusable sandwich and snack bags and had planned to figure out my measurements mathematically, but that was too much work so I decided to just wing it.

For reusable sandwich bags I cut both fabrics about 7.5″ wide, then I cut the PUL about 20 1/4″ long and the cotton lining fabric about 20 3/4″ to 21″ long.

For reusable snack bags I cut both fabrics about 6 1/5″ wide, then the PUL about 16 1/4″ and the cotton lining fabric about 16 3/4″ to 17″ long. Yes, there’s a reason why the cotton lining fabric is longer than the PUL – it’s coming up next.

With right sides together, lay the cotton on top of the PUL, aligning the edges as well as you can. Pin along one of the short sides and serge. You may notice that my fabrics don’t line up perfectly on the right side – that’s the beauty of sewing for yourself, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Besides, the serger trims off that little edge so I don’t stress about cutting perfectly.

2. Create the Folding Pocket Closure
Open the fabrics and flip the lining piece over the serged seam so the fabrics are wrong-sides-together. Line up the short edge opposite from the seam and pin along that edge. The right sides of both the outer and lining fabrics should be facing out. Don’t worry about what the seam is doing right now; it’s probably not lining up the way you expect, but that’s OK.

Smooth the fabric from the pinned edge to the seamed edge. The seam will not line up equally; a little of the lining should show on the PUL half, and will create a little decorative element on the finished bag. Look at the folded-down edge in the photo – see how the lining makes a little border? That’s what you want it to do. You can finger press the cotton so it has a bit of a crease, but don’t use your iron on the PUL – the shiny sides may fuse together and then you’d be in a real pickle.

Creating the “pocket” closure is a bit tricky – think about how the top of a plastic bag is put together… that’s what we’re trying to do.

First fold the bag in half outsides-together with the serged and pinned edges even; serged layer on top and pinned layer on bottom.

Next, fold the serged layer to the inside and pin along the top so it doesn’t unfold on you. I place the fold about 2″ from the raw edge of the other layer; I think it’s easier to measure that way than try to measure the folded part. In this photo you can see the “pocket” part is folded to the inside.

This is what it should look like. Now pin up the sides and you’re ready to serge the sides and top.

You’re almost done!

3. Stitching the Sides
Starting at the bottom fold on one side, serge or sew the raw edge along the side, through all the layers when you get to the folded “pocket” area, across the top edge, and back down the other side to the fold.

To keep your serging from unraveling, you can either pull the loose threads and tie them, or serge over them again – kind of like back-stitching on a sewing machine.

3a. Starting and Finishing a Serged Seam
To secure the beginning of a serged seam, start about an inch from the beginning and serge toward the edge.

Stop when the needles are just over the edge and pull gently on the thread just enough so you can pivot the fabric.

Realign the fabric so you’re starting at the beginning; headed toward the center of the fabric. Serge as you would normally, stitching over the first inch of serging.

When you get to the end of your seam repeat the same steps: stop just over the end of the fabric, pull gently, pivot, realign, serge for about an inch before carefully serging off the edge of the fabric.

This is what the end of the serged seam looks like. If you look carefully you can see both lines of stitching at the corner.

4. Final Steps
Here is your almost-finished reusable snack bag; just one more step to go.

Turn the bag right-side-in, and you’re done! Ta-da!

Using your Reusable Snack Bag

Use your reusable snack bag just like you’d use a plastic sandwich bag: insert food and fold. Here are step-by-step photos for you to follow. I know you’re smart enough to figure it out by yourself but I was taking the photos anyway so I figured I might as well show how to do the folds.

Obviously you put your food inside the bag first; then fold the long edge into the bag. If your food is close to the opening be sure the first layer covers it, otherwise some may fall out.

Turn the folded-down “pocket” piece the one with the lining showing over the open edge, kind of like you’re turning it inside out. I hook my thumbs inside each corner then use my middle fingers to push the corners in and around as I flip the “pocket” over, but I couldn’t use both hands to close the bag and take a photo at the same time.

Smooth out the “pocket” so it lies flat, and that’s it!

Now you can see why the first serged seam didn’t line up evenly; the lining creates a nice little decorative accent on the bag.

If you wanted you could add snaps or velcro under the edge of the “pocket” but I’ve never found it necessary. We’ve been using reusable snack bags for almost six months and the only time things fly out is if the first layer isn’t folded over the food. And that one time the boys used a couple of them as bean bags.

This is one of my experiments: I put the cotton fabric on the outside and the PUL, fabric-side-out on the inside. I don’t like it as well though – I don’t have a good reason, I just don’t.

Here’s a set of reusable bags I made for an “Uncloth Basket” my friend Nicole and I donated to WECA for their basket auction last fall. I also made a set of unpaper towels and mesh produce bags for the basket. Nicole made some cloth napkin and reusable shopping bags. I had some photos of the basket but my computer ate them. Naughty computer!

Here’s our stash of reusable snack and sandwich bags. They’re various sizes because I was trying to get as many out of a width of fabric as I could, and because when I’m making something like this for family use I really don’t care if they’re all the same or not.

To clean your reusable bags simply turn them inside out and wash them with your regular laundry. I often just shake any crumbs out and re-use them several times for crackers and other dry foodstuffs before laundering them.

I hope I’ve inspired you to make your own reusable snack bags – or reusable sandwich bags – and when you do be sure to leave a comment and/or send me a photo.

Happy eco-sewing!

Switching to reusable, “unpaper” towels was an easy way for our family to be more eco-friendly.

When I decided to mane the switch from paper to unpaper towels the first thing I did was research online. I found tons of different types of unpaper towels made of a wide variety of fabrics. One by one I eliminated fabrics: flannel pills and fades too much, terrycloth is too thick, wovens are too thin, knits are too stretchy, velour is too plush… finally I found the perfect fabric: cotton birdseye!

If you picture the old-fashioned, white rectangular cloth diapers your grandma may have used you’re probably thinking of birdseye. Birdseye is a thin cotton fabric with a very small diamond pattern woven into it that softer and more absorbent with each wash. Even better, it’s cheap and not ugly, but not so pretty that I’d be devastated if a towel was ruined.

I decided to make my unpaper towels two-layered, and guesstimated that two dozen would be a good number to start with. Since most birdseye fabric is about 27″ wide I planned to cut my unpaper towels about 14×14″. Yes, I realize 14 + 14 = 28, not 27. I hate math so I tend to round things up or down. They’re just for us anyway so it’s not a big deal if they’re not perfectly square. I figured I’d get about two and a half unpaper towels out of each yard so I needed a lot of birdseye!

When the birdseye arrived I skipped prewashing because it was so nice and flat I knew it would be easier to work with than if I washed it. I cut the fabric into squares, then serged two layers together, rounding the corners. The ends of the thread were tied together so they wouldn’t unravel. Voila, they were done!

I decide to fancy some of them up with some decorative stitching around the borders. I have a ton of fun stitches on my machine that I never used so I just started picking some at random. The thread was all leftover from previous projects and doesn’t necessarily match front and back, but I don’t care – they’re just towels for heaven’s sake!

Once I was done with the decorative stitching because I ran out of leftover thread I threw them all in the washer for a quick hot wash to get the fabric sizing out.

Now they live in one of our kitchen drawers, which I can’t show you a photo of because the other half is so messy I’d die of embarrassment if you saw it.

Making unpaper towels was so easy I know you can do it too! Send me a photo when you do – I’ll bet you’ve got some really creative ideas and I can’t wait to see them!

I’m the kind of person who likes to make things herself. If I buy a handcrafted product I usually try to figure out how I can make it myself and how I can improve it. That’s actually how I got started in the cloth diaper business: I purchased some handmade cloth diapers and after inspecting them I thought “I can do this – better!” So I did.

That’s how I started to make mesh produce bags. One night at the grocery store I came to the horrifying realization that our reusable grocery bags were filled with plastic produce bags! How un-green is that? As soon as we got home I was on the internet researching reusable mesh produce bags.

There were tons and tons of mesh produce bags in different fabrics, sizes, with and without accessories. But I couldn’t bring myself to buy any; I looked at them and thought “I can do that – better!” So I did.

It took a little while. First I had to go through the painful “product development” stage where you try out different ideas and end up with a bunch of crap before you discover what works best.

Finally I came up with what I think are the perfect mesh produce bags. They have that fantastic little pleat that I love in plastic produce bags, are lightweight, are see-through, and best of all – they’re reusable!

Supplies to Make a Mesh Produce Bag

In addition to the usual sewing implements; scissors, thread, pins, etc, you’ll also need:

• Scrubby mesh – don’t use regular tulle or petticoat mesh, they won’t hold up.
• 1/4″ ribbon – I prefer grosgrain, but you can use anything you have lying around.
• Medium-sized safety pin
• Iron and ironing board
• Sewing machine (Obvious I know, but I want to be thorough)
• Serger if you have one – if not you can zig-zag or overcast with your sewing machine.

Ready? Then let’s get started!

Make a Mesh Produce Bag – Step by Step

I did my best to explain each step clearly, and hope the photos help, but if you have any questions please contact me or leave a comment below; I’ll be happy to help!

Step 1: Cut your Mesh

With the mesh folded in half, cut your rectangles so the fold is on the bottom. You can make your mesh produce bags any size you like, but keep in mind that after sewing the finished size will be about 1/2″ narrower across and 1″ shorter than you cut. Here are my cutting dimensions:

• Small: 7.5″ wide x 11″ tall (folded in half – if you unfold it the rectangle would be 7.5″ x 22″)
• Medium: 10.5″ wide x 12.5″ tall (unfolded: 10.5″ x 25″)
• Large: 13.5″ wide by 16″ tall (unfolded: 13.5″ x 32″)

I color-code my bags. Some of my rejects included cute little ribbons with snaps to wrap around rolled-up produce bags, and snap-on carrying pouches for neatly folded or rolled mesh bags. It didn’t take long before I realized that after shopping and putting away groceries I wasn’t about to sit and roll up all these mesh produce bags, or fold them neatly into a pouch. What I actually did was stuff all the produce bags into one of the large mesh produce bags and toss thems into the van with the reusable grocery bags. Color-coding make it easier to grab the right size while we’re shopping.

Step 2: Side Seams

With the fold at the bottom of the bag, serge or stitch up the sides of the bag. Stitch top-to-bottom on one side, but on the other side stop about two inches from the top. This will make the opening for the ribbon closure. If you serged the seams you’ll need to keep this end from unraveling by tying the threads together, or whatever method you use. If you stitched the seams with a sewing machine you may want to zig-zag or overcast the seam for added strength.

That was easy, wasn’t it? Now turn the bag right-side-out.

Step 3: Top Casing
Before ironing your mesh take a scrap piece and do a test to make sure it doesn’t melt your mesh. Mine was fine, but I don’t want you to end up a melted mesh mess.

If your iron and mesh pass the test, carefully press the top edge under – to the inside – about 1/4″. Then fold that edge to the inside so it just barely overlaps the side serging/stitching. Pin in place then press the edge.

Carefully stitch along the fold to create a casing for the ribbon.

Good job! I’ll bet your bag looks something like this one!

Step 4: Bottom Pleats
Most mesh produce bags on the market are simple rectangles like you’ve got now. If you want you could skip ahead to the last step and be done. Personally, I like the bottom pleats because they expand to hold more produce, they allow the bag to sit upright, and they pull the sides of the empty produce bag in so it’s smaller.

To add the pleats you first have to mark bottom fold in the middle. The easiest way to do this is to fold the bag in half side-to-side and make a mark there.

Keeping the back right-side-in, push one corner toward the middle mark, so the seam is directly under the mark. It’s a little tricky, but I know you can do it.

Pin the pleat in place.

Then repeat with the other side so both pleats are pinned in place.

On the right side of the bag, stitch across the bottom about 1/4″ from the fold, catching both pleats in the stitching. Piece of cake!

Yours looks like this, right?

You’re almost done – just one more step.

Step 5: Adding the Ribbon Closure

Measure your ribbon against the bag. You need enough to go around the whole top of the bag plus about 2-3″ on both ends for tying.

Attach the safety pin to one end of the ribbon and insert it in the opening of the casing. Carefully work the safety pin through the casing until it comes out the other opening. Be careful not to pull the other end of the ribbon into the casing. If you do it’s not the end of the world, just pull it all the way through and try again.

Hold the ends together and tie them together. You can cut the ends on the bias (slanty) so they’re less likely to unravel.

Step 6: Done!

To finish my bags I like to lay them out on the ironing board and give them a light pressing to set the pleats and make them nice and flat. You can totally skip this step if you want though.

Using your Mesh Produce Bag

Fill your mesh produce with fresh fruits or veggies and pull the ribbon tight. The grosgrain ribbon has always held well for me, but satin ribbon might slip. You can also tie the ribbon after you pull it tight: just fold it so the knot is against the bag, creating two loops on either side. Take those two loops and tie them into a knot. Pretty slick!

When my mesh produce bags get a little dirty I just swish them through the water when I’m washing dishes and air dry. If they get really nasty I wash them with my laundry on cold then air dry.

Congratulations, you just made a mesh produce bag! Go show everyone you know what a cool produce bag you made, then take a photo and send it to me so I can see too. Go green with mesh produce bags!

OK, I admit right off the bat that I took this idea from my friend, Pietra of Homestead Emporium. I really don’t think she’ll mind though because I’m only making them for myself and the girls: I don’t serge small circles like this well enough to think about selling them (as you can see). But that’s OK, they don’t have to be perfect for me; I’m just excited to find another way to use some of the gorgeous fabrics I have leftover from making diapers.

There’s nothing I hate more than wasting fabric so I’ve been keeping all my scraps to make cloth pads and nursing pads but there’s only so many of those that you need – especially if you’re not nursing anymore. I did make some nursing pads for Princess but need more practice on those too. Luckily she doesn’t mind if some of the circles are a bit wonky. It’s frustrating that I can’t serge as well as I sew, but since I’ve been sewing waaaay longer than I’ve been serging it makes sense. I don’t have to like it though. But I digress…

Getting back on track: I took photos of Pietra’s and my cotton rounds. In case you can’t tell, Pietra’s are on the top. There were 10 rounds but one went AWOL before the photo shoot. Her girls do all the work for them, including taking the photos and shipping, except the actual serging. I think that’s SO cool! My girls help me whenever they have time – they especially like tearing out the stabilizer behind appliques and helping to package orders – but they don’t have a product all their own. I was going to teach them to serge so they could do wipes and such but whenever I had time they didn’t and vice versa. Oops, I’m digressing again…

The bottom photo are the ones I made; obviously. They got better as I went along and figured out which side is best to have up (the dyed side) and what settings to have the serger on (for my serger it’s the longest stitch length and neutral width). They’re not as perfect as Pietra’s, but I like them anyway.

Another disposable product eliminated from our household! After switching to cloth napkins, washcloths instead of paper towels for the daycare, reusable shopping bags, cloth pads, containers instead of ziploc bags for food storage, and now reusable cotton balls, I’m running out of ideas. Paper towels? Maybe, but we reserve those for gross things we don’t want to see again – like cat puke. Q-tips? I haven’t figured out how to do those “green” yet. Family cloth? Not likely – I likes my toilet paper!