DIY Linen Bread Bag: No More Stale Boule

If you’re looking for the best way to store artisan bread, try our DIY Linen Bread Bag. Linen is the most absorbent natural material, so it’s a perfect way to keep those boule and baguette loaves crusty.

Linen bread bags are so easy to make you’ll want to turn them out by the dozens, for yourself and for gifts. Picture yourself arriving at your friend’s home for dinner, wafting sensory deliciousness wrapped in a classy linen bread bag as you walk in the door. Which you casually tell the host/hostess to keep. They will invite you every week. Maybe.

Because when you tell people how crusty homemade loaves stay in linen bread bags, they will never go back to regular plastic bags again.

Linen bags are perfect for bread because they are breathable, yet tightly closed. And not only do linen bags keep bread fresh, they look really stylish on your kitchen counter. Much more so than a crumbled paper bag, or horrors, plastic bread bag. Plus they’re good for the environment, saving all those paper and plastic bags.

One caveat: any good crusty homemade loaf of bread, no matter how you store it, doesn’t stay fresh more than a day or two without freezing. And for that, the linen bread bags, with the bread, should be placed in an airtight container to prevent staleness.

linen-bread-bags-via-amazon-com — Stenciled linen bread bags*

Benefits of linen bread bags:

Breathable
Keeps bread in the dark
Bread bag with ties can be hung on a hook off the counter
Washable
Keeps bread from drying out
Linen naturally absorbs moisture

DIY Linen Bread Bag

Supplies:

Medium to heavy weight tight weave linen. Use this link to buy brand new fabric, or scour the linens at garages sales and thrift shops for used linen. Linen is a fabric that practically never wears out, merely gets softer with washing. So used is fine.
Cutting mat and rotary cutter or scissors, measuring tape or clear ruler to guide rotary cutter.
Sewing machine threaded to match linen.
Cording* or lacing* for ties to close bag, 2 ties per bag, each tie one and a half times the width of the bag circumference.

Common Bread Bag Sizes:

Boule Bread: 12″ x 12″

Baguette or Challah Bread: 17″ x 11″

French Bread, Sandwich Loaf size: 15″ x 12″

striped-linen-bread-bags-via-amazon-com — Ready made striped linen bread bags*

Directions to cut Linen Bread Bags:

Wash and dry your new linen fabric a few times to soften and shrink. New linen always shrinks, quite a lot, and you don’t want any surprises after you’ve gone to the work of making these heirlooms. After this initial washing you will not wash your bread bag. I know, sounds scary. But it’s true. It may get grungy with time, so then you’ll wash it. But as a general rule, linen is naturally antibacterial and if you wash it too much you could mess with that. If you wash it use non-chlorine bleach and gentle detergents. And hang to dry. Iron if you need it smooth, but the dryer will only exaggerate the creases. And excess heat messes with the natural germ-fighting abilities.
Mark the linen for cutting. Cut the length 1.5″ and width 1″ longer than needed. Cut the width double the finished size. For example, for the boule bread you want the finished size 12″ x 12″. Cut the width double 12″ plus 1″ for seams. The width will be 25″. The finished length is 12″ so you will mark the fabric 13.5″. Cut the linen at 13.5″ x 25″ for a boule bread bag.

How to Sew Linen Bread Bags:

Hem the open end of the bread bag and make the pull string casing. As shown in the diagram, snip the side seams 1″ down from the future top edge of the bag. Double fold and hem the casing from the top raw edge of the bag to the snip. Measure half way across, where the center fold of the bag will be, and make a 5/8″ buttonhole through one thickness of fabric, 1/4″ down from the top raw edge. Now fold the top edge down 1/4″ and iron. Fold 3/4″ down and press again. Stitch along the edge of the hem.
Fold the linen width length in half, wrong side out. Sew 1/2″ seams on the two unfinished edges. Serge if you want a finished edge. (Even better, sew French seams. With right sides out, sew a 1/4″ seam. Turn, press the sewn edges and sew another 1/4″ seam. No raveling!) Remember to end the side seam below the hem of the open end of the bag so you can string the lacing ties through.