I have oodles of those 99 cent green bags that the local grocery store sells.  It takes about 8 of them to carry groceries for our family of four home.  Most of the bags are three or so years old, and they’ve definitely seen some wear since I avoid plastic bags whenever possible.

Since it’s the start of a new year and it’s too darn cold to do much outside, I thought now would be a good time to give them a bit of an overhaul!

This is more mending than craft, but it’s easy and helps maintain my reusable bags.

First, I checked for broken or damaged inserts that help keep the bottom firm and the bag upright.  Several of them were completely trashed.  After fishing around in my recycling, I came up with a couple sturdy cereal boxes.

The boxes were the perfect size, so I just trimmed them up with scissors, rounded the corners and popped them into the bag.  Wallah, brand new bottom inserts!

Next, I checked for split or damaged seams.  Most of them were okay because I fairly regularly check for popped stitching caused by one too many cans!  There was one that had lost it’s stitching and was starting to lose the trim that holds the front and bottom together.  A quick zig zag stitch using whatever thread was on my machine, and it’s good to go!

If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked,  I’d love to see a photo.  Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.