Cloth Bulk Bin Bag Tutorial
I love these bags, they are so versatile, not only are they great for food from bulk bins, they are also great for anything from rubber bands to buttons. Hope you enjoy the tutorial, and please make as many as you want for personal use. The size I made here holds approx. 5 1/2 cups of oatmeal, so you can adjust the size depending on whether you want a smaller or bigger bag. The directions will be great for any size.
First you want to embroider the item that you will be filling the bag with and the PLU# (the number on the bulk bin that you would normally write on the twisty tie) on a light piece of fabric, I used white muslin.
Next cut two pieces of fabric 9" x 12". Cut the piece you embroidered the info on down to approx. 2 1/2" x 3" and cut another blank piece of the same fabric to the same size. Also you will need a piece of thin bias binding approx. 23" long.
Put your info tag pieces right sides together and stitch together leaving a space big enough to turn right side out. Clip corners, turn right side out, and press.
Fold the opening in and stitch around in a matching colour thread.
Open the bias binding and fold down the very end.
Fold back together.
Stitch fron one end to the other, making sure that you fold the other end in as well.
Make a hem at the top (short sides of fabric) by folding the edge over once, pressing it, then folding it again. Stitch from one end to the other.
Using a running stitch with 3 strands of embroidery floss, stitch the info tag onto the front piece of the bag approx. 4 1/2" down from the top.
Put both sides of the bag together wrong sides together. Fold the bias binding in half and put the folded end about 2" down from the top. Make sure that it is in far enough to catch when you stitch the seam. Making a 1/4" seam, stitch from the top, down the side, across the bottom, and back up the other side.
Turn bag inside out, press, and making a 1/2" seam, stitch again from the top, down the side, across the bottom, and back up the other side. Make sure that you do not stitch the bag tie accidentally into another seam. I pulled it out of the top of the bag to make sure I didn’t accidentally catch it.
Next we’re going to make a gusset so that your bag will sit flat. Turn your bag right side out again and and flatten the corner out so that the side seam and bottom seam are sitting back to back. Stitch about an inch in from corner (easier to understand if you look at the picture, sorry kind of hard to explain with just words). Repeat on other corner.
Trim the end off 1/4" from the stitching. Repeat on other side.
Turn inside out and and press the corners. Make a 1/2" seam by stitching from top to bottom. Repeat on the other side.
Turn your bag right side out, and enjoy!
Excellent idea!
I have to say I am totally besotted with the yellow floral fabric.
x
What a great idea! And well done. We’re constantly buying bulk from Whole Foods and Sprouts and all those pesky little plastic bags are such a waste. As a matter of fact, this morning I returned from such a trip of bulk-buying.
Thanks for sharing!
I love your idea. I’ve always been bugged by the fact that I take reusible grocery bags to the bulk store, but still have to use plastic ones to put my individual purchases in. Now I can make some of these in the new year (way too much to do before Christmas!)
Fancy Elastic, I love this fabric too, I’ve had it quite a while and as there wasn’t much, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. When I decided to do these bags, I thought it would be perfect.
Emily and Andrea, I hope you guys are able to make some. I’d love to see them if you do.
Quite an ingenious idea! I will DEFINITELY be including this in my repertoire of reusable bags. Thank you for the inspiration!
It’s in my resolutions to make a set of these, thank you for the inspiration!
i love this! what a great idea to embroider the contents and PLU. the folks who ring me up at whole foods would flip over these bags!