Wednesday Sewing - Projects for Earth Day

Earth Day is this Sunday, April 22, and I've been thinking of ways I can reduce some of our garbage.  One of our throw-aways that's bothered me for awhile are the plastic produce bags.  They're can't be recycled (at least not where we live) and we eat a LOT of vegetables!  I tried skipping using them, but then my vegetables and fruit rolled all over the cart.  One of the millions of catalogs I get before Christmas had mesh bags that looked great, however they were a bit spendy for my budget.  No problem - these things are really easy to whip out!

I used a mesh fabric from my local fabric store - it looks like what laundry bags and some athletic shirts are made from.  You could also use any cotton fabric - you'll need to hem the opening.

These can be made any size - I cut 25 inch by 19 inch rectangles ...

folded them in half ...

and sewed down one side and across the bottom with a zigzag stitch.  If your machine bunches the fabric up or if the presser foot catches on the netting, see my past tutorial on sewing sheer fabrics.  I didn't finish the top, but you could fold it down about an inch, sew along the bottom of where you turned it down, and insert string/ribbon for a drawstring.  I just fold it over on top ...

or tie a knot.

These also make great project bags - another way to get rid of carrying all my work around in Ziploc bags.

Another thing we throw away a lot of are glasses cleaning wipes.  Both my husband and I do a lot of computer work and so need to have non-glare coating on our glasses, which make the lenses pretty tough to get smears and grease off of.  We've been buying cotton disposable wipes and a commercial brand of glasses cleaner - and both keep going up in price.    I bought a yard of diaper material at the fabric store, cut it up into big squares and they work great!  I just toss them in the washer, dry them, and they're ready for another week - and I was lazy and didn't even hem them.  They don't seem to fray much.

About that glasses cleaner - I found out how they make it and the ingredients are ridiculously cheap.  Take a spray bottle (I use the old bottles I'd saved from that commercial brand), fill it 1/4 full with 99% isopropyl alcohol, fill to about 1/2 inch below the top with water, and add a big squirt or two of dishwashing liquid.  That's it!

Now I'll look around and see what else we throw away that could be made from something reuseable. 

Happy Crafting!  Deborah