Going Green in Style

I've become that crazy lady at the grocery store. You know the one--the lady with a pile of coupons her own shopping bags. Yep, that's me. And I'm proud of it!

But, if you haven't noticed, those reusable bags from our favorite supercenters and grocery stores are a little a lot ugly.

With that in mind, I tried a new pattern. This shopping bag is The ReUse-a-Bag from Studio Kat Designs. I like 2 things about it:

I like the finished size (I made the large).

I like that it folds up nice and small to tuck into a purse.

I modified the pattern to my fit my tastes.

• I omitted the "receipt pocket",
• I left off the zipper and just top-stitched the edges,
• I didn't follow the instructions for putting the bag together and inserting the gussets, and
• I made my straps much longer than this pattern directs.

Basically, I only used the pattern to determine the sizes to cut and the placement of the Velcro so that it rolled up nicely. Would I recommend you buy it? Probably not. If you can make a purse, you can figure those other things out without much trouble.

Then, in one of those "just because I can moments", I decided to make a matching key chain (or fob or whatchamacallit).


This tutorial makes a super quick key fob. It takes a 4 x 9 piece of fabric, the same size interfacing, ribbon if you want it and a D ring. Did I mention it is easy? Isn't this a great gift idea?