"In the US, an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. Four million tons of this is wrapping paper and shopping bags."
~ From Clean Air Council, Waste Facts & Figures. The staggering & disheartening waste statistics on this page alone will make you want to either crawl under a rock or, hopefully, motivate you to consider ways to reduce your waste throughout the year, particularly at Christmas time.
The Green Bag Lady, Teresa VanHatten-Granath, is definitely on the motivated side of things, and she created the Green Grocery Bag Challenge as an extension to her year-round efforts to get consumers to reduce their use of single-use plastic bags.
I created these fabric produce bags and the accompanying free downloadable PDF pattern in the spirit of the Green Grocery Bag Challenge. They make excellent gift bags (I've already tucked a bottle of wine in one as a hostess gift), and they go together lightning faaaast! If you're looking for a gift project to whip-up that's equal parts handmade, eco-friendly, lasting, useful, adorable and unique, give it a try! I was able to chain stitch 6 of these in less than an hour.
Feel free to make as many as you like for your personal use. If you'd like to make Daisy Janie's fabric produc bag to sell, you may purchase a one-time licensing fee from Daisy Janie for $10. Email for details. If you're a sewing instructor and would like to use this with your classes, please contact me for more information.
Download produce bag pattern here.
Using Daisy Janie's organic cotton fabrics was the icing on the cake for this project!
+ DJ fabrics touch on midweight, adding extra durability and longevity to your bags.
+ DJ fabrics are organically produced without the use of chemicals (e.g. fertilizers, pesticides, bleaches, heavy metal inks). So you're starting with a green choice plus there aren't any toxic chemical residues permanently embedded in the fibers.
Interested in using Daisy Janie's organic cotton fabrics?
Find a retailer on my where to buy page.
These bags brought cheers and collective sighs of relief from everyone in my house: Rah-rah-aaah!! In my flat-out refusal to use plastic produce bags at the grocery, I have had many, ummm, 'interesting' checkout experiences with big piles of uncontained, roly-poly, round things. But that stops today, baby. With these new produce bags, we'll definitely get The Happy back when we checkout now!
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