I made reusable produce bags

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 I've wanted to make reusable produce bags for a long time. I just find the flimsy plastic ones annoying and I like to find ways of eliminating single use items in my life. We already regularly use reusable grocery bags so it won't be a stretch to grab these bags too.

I decided to make my bags out of mosquito netting because it's super cheap and super light. Mosquito netting may not hold up to heavy use, but we typically buy only a week's worth of produce at a time so we're hardly ever buying lots of one thing. I think they will hold up just fine with a few apples or potatoes at a time. 

I wanted a strong but light and washable drawstring so I used a very thin ribbon I had as the drawstring and used two types of closure: ribbon with a bead for a toggle and two ribbons that draw from opposite ends. The weight difference is undistinguishable. 

The biggest bag came to 0.4 oz when measured with my mail scale. When I did the math, the weight of that bag would add only 2-8 cents to the cost of the produce item depending on the cost per pound of our typical purchases. I find that margin acceptable. The smaller bags were so light they didn't even register on the scale.

I first tried to use my serger to sew up the sides but that failed. The upper and lower loopers just weren't getting caught by the left needle. I tried again with my regular machine. I put in a ballpoint needle to keep the needle from ripping the mesh. I used regular all-purpose thread. I googled a bit about sewing with fine mesh and determined I should use the zigzag stitch and change the width of the stitch to .5 and the length to .8. I also turned the thread tension down to 2 and lightened my foot pressure to 2. This combination did the trick and kept the mesh feeding through the machine without getting caught.

Per the advice of one person I didn't start stitching from the beginning of the seam but from about an inch in. If you start from the beginning the mesh more easily gets caught in the machine. I went back and stitched the open end from the other direction. I folded over the top opening to make a simple casing. 

I ended up with two bags about 12" x 17", two 5" x 8", and one in between those sizes. I look forward to seeing how they work out IRL.





Bead toggle closure

Double drawstring closure

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