Patchwork project for your unpaper products

Say that 5 times fast.

You don't still get plastic bags from the grocery store do you? Yeah, me neither. Well usually not. Occasionally the pups make a mess in the house and it's handy to have a bag for clean up that I can take straight to the garbage can. Why do they eat grass, anyway? It always ends up on the rug.

I came across this great tutorial for making a plastic bag holder (I'm actually thinking it will be awesome for dispensing washcloths or unpaper towels, a few at a time so I'm not always digging in the linen closet for them) and had to try it out.

My version:

The 50s kitcheny fabrics are from Anna Griffin's long discontinued Elsie's Kitchen line, American Jane polka dots and florals, and Alexander Henry's birdseed in yellow. Also some Michael Miller dumb dots in black mixed in. It didn't come out as photogenic as I'd hoped, but I still like it.

I did make some alterations to the pattern measurements which I'll share here in case you want to make one too, especially those of you in the US.

The changes:

1. First I had to convert and round the measurements up from the pesky metric system that nearly the entire planet uses but we Americans still view as incomprehensible. Silly logical rest of the world. Then I made it slightly longer: The measurements of the pieced fabric/muslin are 20"H x 18"W. My patchwork strips started out 6" long, and were trimmed down to the proper size while squaring.

2. Instead of using a long piece of fabric for the hanger, I just used a wide piece of grosgrain ribbon (3/4"W), about 10" in length. And instead of attaching it to the bag after the elastic was sewn in, I sewed the ribbon ends to the inside of the bag, right along the casing seam before inserting the elastic. One end I sewed to the center of the pieced fabric, the other end near the edge, next to where the edges of the bag are sewn together, but with enough room for about a 1/2" seam allowance.

3. I changed the elastic measurements to 6-1/2" for the bottom elastic, and 7-1/2" for the top.

4. Apparently I like to sew lots and lots of narrow little strips together. If you want to save some time, make sure your narrower strips are at least 2" to 2-1/2" wide, but use plenty of wider strips, in the 3-4" range.

That sounds more confusing than it is when I see it all written out. Would you prefer photos to illustrate?

I also wanted to mention that there are still a few days left to enter my sewing kit and pear pattern giveaway. So please enter. Right now!

Have a happy weekend!
Kim