I have missed my sewing machine. Yesterday I made this little tote bag for Meleah. She picked out the material at Wal-mart a long time ago. I didn't know what to do with it but it has become a stuffed animal tote bag.I have never really felt the need to bring my own bags to the grocery store until just recently. I was loading my groceries into the car when the plastic shopping bag broke into pieces on me, dropping a jar of salsa that managed to land on me. I was not pleased. The next time a bag of canned goods broke through the plastic bag and let me just tell you that cans, dropping from about waist height, it is not the most pleasant feeling.
My sister and her sewing group were making these shopping bags and she was kind enough to send me some links to shopping bag patterns. I decided to try it out. I got rid of most of my material when moving so I just used an old twin size sheet. If you want to try it for yourself the directions are found here:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=177482.0
It uses a plastic shopping bag as a pattern. This one has a pocket, you can fold the bag up and stick it into the pocket, handy for sticking in your purse or in the car somewhere.
It has been nice to actually have time again for things like this. I don't know if these will take the place of all the plastic bags or not. Maybe just the heavy and the breakable things. Our grocery store gives you $0.10 off for every bag you bring in. I guess it will save money and toes.
