How to… make a Morsbags Shopping Bag out of a Shirt!

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Hello! Well.. I am not sure if today is a bit of a “cheat”. As I do bring you a “How To”, but essentially it is a How To that links to a pattern… but the reason I decided to go ahead anyway, is that I am hoping to tell you a little bit about a very lovely little charity called Morsbags.com known for its “Sociable Guerilla Bagging”.

In the UK most shops and supermarkets heap plastic bags on shoppers. The idea behind Morsbags, is to make permanent bags out of old fabric, donate these to shoppers and reduce the plastic bag waste (even if some reuse or recycle them… there are still too many).

Plastic bags are a pet hate of mind. And I love “repurposing” old things. I am, however, what you would call “rubbish” at sewing. I usually try and get out of it with all my “No Sew” activities, but it is a skill that I really want to improve on, and I found that these bags are FABULOUS for a beginner to practice sewing – wonky lines don’t matter (too much) and you still have something productive at the end of your efforts.

So. I highly recommend giving these a go, if you would like to practice sewing! You will be doing something good in the process! AND, what is best of all, you can make one bag out of ONE shirt (with a little cutting of corners and sewing the front of the shirt shut).

Materials: A sewing machine, thread, a shirt (per bag) or pillow case, Morsbag labels.

How to: Here is the pattern. My only tip is to iron your fabric, it does help with cutting it out neatly.

I made these with a friend, which made for a lovely evening “together”. We made 4 in total:

1) One white shirt – one Morsbag (buttons on front , label on back, sleeves for handles)

2) 2 blue shirts, one checked, one stripy – reversing the patterns on the handles (my favourite of the bags)

3) 1 pillow case

4) One “bit of fabric” remains from a skirt

Here are our photos:

I hope that if you have some old shirts or fabric “lying” around you will give these a go and take your shopping bags with you on your daily trip!

Now.. I know this isn’t terribly exciting, but I am giving away ONE of the above Morsbags.com shopping bags to one of you lovely readers anywhere in the world. Just leave me a comment below saying that you would like to win a bag and please subscribe to my blog (and let me know you have done so!). AND you must promise that you will try and use it for your shopping!!