Cut Back On Grocery Essentials & DIY Eco-Friendly Reusable Sandwich Bags

There are plenty of reasons to stop using plastic bags immediately, whether they're for shopping or food storage. For something that's typically used only once, the environmental harm they cause is significant. They're difficult to recycle, and the energy it takes to produce and ship them to stores tacks on even more disadvantages to using plastic bags. Lightweight and often transparent, plastic bags blow away easily, becoming litter that's unsightly and can harm wildlife. Stop throwing your money at throwaway sandwich bags, and invest some time into making some reusable ones. Using food-safe ProCare fabric as a liner, which goes for about $9 per yard, you can convert nearly any fabric into a sandwich bag with a few straight lines of stitching.

You can also put together a budget version by subbing ProCare fabric for plastic cut from a storage bag, but it won't be as durable as the ones lined with ProCare. Use up the sandwich bags you have with some of these clever ways to repurpose resealable plastic bags and tote your edibles in homemade bags you can feel good about. To make four of your own 7-inch by 7-inch sandwich bags, you'll need 1 yard of thin, woven fabric, like quilting cloth, and one yard of ProCare fabric. If you want to seal your bags more securely, also purchase some hook-and-loop adhesive tabs ($6 for 20 on Amazon).

This DIY makes four sandwich bags with a 3-inch fold-top. From the 18-inch fabric squares, this leaves a 1-inch seam allowance. You'll be cutting your yard of ProCare in quarters for a total of four 18-inch squares. Use one of the pieces of ProCare to trace and cut four pieces of the woven material in equal sizes.

Set a piece of ProCare waterproof-side down on top of a right-side-up fabric square. Stitch the two pieces together into a pocket on three sides with a ½-inch seam allowance on each edge. Turn the pocket inside out so that the waterproof and printed sides of the materials are on the outside. Tuck ½-inch of the open ends inside the pocket, and sew it closed for a finished edge. Your sewn piece should now measure about 17 inches on each side with the seamed edges on the inside.

Fold the sewn piece up 7 inches and pin the edges, leaving one side of the fold 10 inches long. For a pocket-style fold top, fold the extra 3-inch section of material over and sew the edges of the entire bag so that there's now a 3-inch overlap covering the bag's opening. You can attach a hook-and-loop fastener between the bag and the inside of the fold-over flap for a more secure closure, and your pouch is ready to hold the treats of your choice. Keep your reusable bags organized with the perfect organizer for zip-top bag storage, which is just as handy for reusable bags as for single-use ones.