DIY Reusable Bulk Food Bag

Buying dry groceries in bulk is a great way to reduce your plastic packaging consumption IF you can avoid using the plastic bags that most bulk food grocers stock.

The plastic can be obvious, but it can also be hidden in “paper” bags that are lined with “wax” which is actually plastic.

For many zero wasters that has meant bringing glass containers into the grocery store and dealing with tare weight. “Taring out” means you weigh the container empty then subtract that weight from the full container so that you only pay for the weight of the goods, not the weight of your container.

This process has presented several stumbling blocks as society transitions towards a circular economy:

• the extra step of getting tare weight before shopping is an additional for hurdle people who are low on time or deal with other logistical challenges in their lives, like chronic illness, disability, or caring for children;
• not all cashiers are familiar with tare which can lead to delays when checking out (another hurdle for time pressed individuals) and also to being overcharged;
• not all grocery stores permit the use of other containers, citing a variety of reasons, often alleging concerns over cleanliness/hygiene; policies tend to be inconsistent even within the same “brand” of store at different locations, or with different managers.

All these little things add up to bulk food purchasing being less popular than it could be. And since I already tackled the issue of reusable produce bags with crocheting, I thought I’d try my hand at solving this problem through crafting too!

I’m handy with a sewing machine and I have a good stash of fabric, so I made some simple, lightweight cotton, drawstring bags. The advantages here are that:

• they are light enough that you don’t need to worry about tare,
• they are easier to manage and less conspicuous than a bunch of glass containers,
• so far I don’t know of any stores that don’t let you bring your own bags; might be using a loophole here, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

The downsides are that they are not see through and there is nowhere to write the PLU, so you will need to have a system for keeping track of what goods go in which bags and the item numbers.

If I were going to be in the same area for longer, I would absolutely take the time to dedicate certain bags to certain goods that we buy the most often and embroider the PLU onto the bag. Unfortunately we move too often for that to be worth the effort, so instead I’m going to use my phone to take pictures while I fill them.

The other slight downside is that you will have to take the time when you get home to transfer the goods into different containers; I don’t think items would keep as well in a bag as opposed to a glass jar.

History Time!

Before I get into the how-to part, I’d like to go on a slight historical tangent on the irony of the fabric I used.

This is fabric I inherited from my grandmother when she passed away several years ago. She was really into the 1920s-30s era reproduction fabrics, and these bags are made from fabric in that style that she bought to make a quilt.

(She also made the bias tape that I used to drawstrings; I think she intended to weave it into little applique baskets. It’s been almost ten years since she passed and I have finally come to peace with the fact that I’m just not going to be able to do that, and it’s time to put the materials to better use than sitting my closet.)

But to get back to the history – back in the day, dry goods like flour and feed used to be packaged in cloth, called feed sacks and flour sacks. Times were tough and thrifty housewives weren’t about to let that fabric go to waste – they’d make tons of items out of it, quilts and cloths and dolls and curtains.

Here’s a stunning example of a feedsack dress that is part of a Smithsonian collection:

When the manufacturers realized what was happening, they started using interesting prints in their bags as a marketing tool. They knew families would buy goods based on the sack design as much as what was in it, so they tried to make their sack cloth fun and appealing.

Here are two quilts made with the same style of fabric:

So the fabric that I used to make bags to buy bulk dry goods is fabric reproducing patterns used on fabric made to package bulk dry goods. At any rate, it felt super appropriate to use this fabric and it’s super cute to boot.

Simple Drawstring Bag Tutorial

Drawstring bags are pretty simple and straightforward to make. There are lots of videos and other tutorials out there on the web, so if my instructions aren’t clear, a quick search should get you on your way. But I wanted to share what I did just to get you started.

Keep in mind that I made these on the fly pretty quickly, without doing a whole lot of measuring or pinning or pressing or making sure things were perfect straight. They aren’t exactly the level of quality that I’d feel comfortable selling them, but they are perfectly adequate for my personal use.

I did a couple little experimentations, but here’s what I think worked the easiest.

I started with a rectangle of fabric ~12 x 18 inches. I will be folding it in half “hamburger style” (fat and wide) as opposed to “hot dog style” (long and skinny) so that my bag will end up a little longer than it is wide.

There’s a lot of flexibility here for size and shape; you could go bigger or smaller depending on your shopping habits. I advise making a variety of sizes so you have flexibility. But keep in mind that you don’t want to go too big and end up with a lot of extra bag. Extra bag = extra weight, but at the end of the day it isn’t going to be much, so don’t stress over it too much.

I used cotton since it was fabric I already had in my stash and I didn’t have to go out and buy anything new. If you do need to buy fabric, keep in mind that different textiles have different environmental impacts, and natural fibers are going to be the best. I also strongly encourage looking for a creative reuse center in your area where you can find fabric and other materials second hand!

I used my pinking shears to cut along the long edge of the bag to minimize fraying so I didn’t have to bother with pressing the edge under to make the drawstring channel.

Next I folded over about 3/4″-1″ of the long edge, over the drawstring. I also folded under about 1/4″-1/2″ of fabric along the short edges to finish off the sides where the draw string will stick out. I stitch along the pinked edge about 1/4″ from the edge, being careful not to catch the drawstring under any of the stitches.

Fold the rectangle in half so the two short edges meet, also known as “hamburger style.”

Here’s where it gets a little tricky and you just have to fake it a little bit. You don’t want to stitch over the ends of the drawstrings, but you already folded over a bit of your seam allowance to finish off the drawstring opening.

Instead of maintaining the seam allowance, run the stitching right up to the edge you folded over. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect!

Then stitch along the two remaining unfinished edges. I used about a 3/8 inch seam allowance. I also used a much smaller stitch length to hopefully reduce leakage for finely ground dry goods.

Then flip it inside out, snug the drawstrings up a bit, and voila! You’re done!

A couple thoughts on the drawstrings. I used some narrow bias tape that I had lying around. Ribbon or yarn would also work well. You might consider tying the ends together or putting some other lightweight stopper on them to prevent them from getting lost in the channel.

Field Testing

My husband field tested these bags once so far and he said they worked well. We didn’t have any leaks or spills, so that’s a win. He did mention the difficulty of figuring out what product went into which bag. Our local bulk store is small and trusting, but you might have to open your bag and prove the contents at a larger chain.

If we run into any other hiccups, I’ll update you here!

Please leave a comment with your experience if you try them out!