Recycle, reuse/upcycle & avoid plastic bags!

So I made these Pet Screen tote bags from fabric for which I had no use. Not really my idea of recycling, more like using up what you have. OK, OK it is sort of. Unfortunately I had to buy the Pet Screen mesh which was not cheap - roughly $10 per tote.

Grocery shopping in our household means bagging our own. By that I mean using all those cloth tote bags we've picked up over the years at conferences, etc. To make your own very, very simple ones, check out http://www.morsbags.com/

Lately I have been making aprons for my local Salvation Army thrift store from donated jeans. Each week I come home with a variety of jeans, all colours & shapes. I wash, cut them up and sew into various shapes using the seams as ties or straps, back pocket parts as bibs... Volunteers really seem to like them, especially the fact that they have a choice of style, colour and shape. Today I delivered stitched name tags to be attached to the aprons with a safety pin. KISS! Apron goes home with the volunteer for storage and washing. Every one is happily identified in a kitschy sort of way while working in the store.

Today I read about making grocery bags from t-shirts. Brilliant idea. Can't wait until next week to pick out some neat t-shirts to begin yet another experiment.
Meanwhile check out http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12435622 to see some made up. They don't look too complicated and since the t-shirting is not nearly as thick as denim, I should not be breaking as many sewing machine needles. And according to this person they are amazingly sturdy.