Tuesday, February 1, 2011

to market

The kids and I are always looking for ways to use our desire to create to meet our needs. It's a driving force around here, to make useful things. We've brought our own bags to the store for a long time, but I've been looking for a way to avoid using plastic for our bulk items. We usually put all our produce into one cloth bag to unload at checkout, but I always feel bad when the fresh stuff leaves a mess on the conveyor belt. Enter our market bags:

Using crayons on thin muslin fabric, the kids got to work designing bags.





Then we laid wax paper between the layers of cloth and over the design, fixing the crayon onto the fabric with an iron.




Sewn up as a drawstring bag,



and it's ready to go to the store!




These work great for holding bulk grains and nuts as well as produce. The kids love filling and weighing their bags and showcasing their artwork for all to see.


This post is part of the virtual playgroup at Beneath the Rowan Tree!

4 comments:

t.l. said...

What a good idea! I've used the cloth produce nets before, buy I didn't think about using a cloth bag for bulk grains. I'll have to make some!

Anonymous said...

Oh, CUTE idea with the artwork! I've made myself drawstring bags like that before but they would be so much more interesting if I let my son decorate them...time to sew up some new ones.

helen said...

*love* this idea. we have some from etsy, but they are not nearly as charming as these!!

Lindsay said...

Awesome produce bags! I think my kids would love a project like this, thanks for the inspiration :)