Market Bags DIY: Origami Tote and Produce Pouches

Sustainable Market Bags DIY.
Learn how to make an origami tote
for your weekly grocery haul,
plus simple muslin produce pouches
to organize and ecologize your refrigerator.

 

Yes, ecologize is a word. A good word.

At kimenink we try to ecologize, even though we don’t always succeed.

You know, we forget the market bags at home or we’re too disorganized to wash the produce bags in time for the next shopping trip.

In reality, we’re actually not very good at it at all.

But we know it’s a good thing, and a Biblical teaching. No, it doesn’t say in John 14 “thou shalt use origami market bags” or “keep thy produce away from plastic.” And we’ve been using plastic for almost 40 years of eating meals in this house without obvious side effects. (We think?)

Still, we think it’s time to get on the sustainable shopping train.

(And only partly because it’s so très chic and French market-ish.)

 

”
ECOLOGIZE
is an everyday practice and a conscious intention
to try to live in harmony with all other aspects
of the system to which you belong.
It is a conscious choice to live a modest life,
being in service of the whole,
connect with life energy,
and fully enjoy life wonder.
”
ecologize.net

 

Sustainable Market Bags DIY

We have two different market bag versions we want to share here today.

Both are very simple to make, and you’ll find uses for them far beyond grocery shopping.

You can make them out of any fabrics you wish,

but we’re going for the natural look with these today,

so we’ll use muslin. Besides, we have a stash left over from a different project,

so it’s a win-win. We get to use up as we step up.

 

 

Origami Market Bag

The rule of thumb to remember when cutting this type of origami bag:

The length of your fabric is 3 times the height.

Our muslin stash involves 18″ squares.

So we’ll sew three squares together to get our length.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drawstring Produce Bags

The produce bags are made from 3 of the 18″ square muslin napkins from our stash.

The large produce bag is 2 napkins sewn together, and the other is one napkin folded in half to make a narrow bag.

 

 

 

 

Do you use sustainable market bags?

If you try our project, we’d love to hear about it.