Do you have lots of plastic bags hanging around and no good way to store them? I try to save all of our plastic bags so that we can reuse them, but they get really messy and disorganized. I needed a plastic bag holder. Of course, I’d rather make one than buy one! So, I wrote a tutorial to show you how I made my plastic bag holder. This project is fast and easy and only uses a bit of fabric! Ready to make your own? Let’s get started!
Materials
- A fat quarter of fabric-almost any kind of fabric will work! If you are using yardage, you’ll need 1/2 a yard. I used a home décor fabric.
- A small piece of 1/4 inch elastic-about 8 inches long
- A small piece of ribbon, string, bias binding, or something similar for the hanger. Mine was 9 inches long.
Prepare your fabric
- If you are using a Fat Quarter of fabric, you don’t have to cut it, it’s already the size that you need!
- If you are using yardage, cut 1 rectangle of fabric 18 inches by 22 inches.
- Cut one piece of elastic 8 inches long.
- Cut one piece of ribbon 9 inches long (or however long you want the hanger to be).
Time to sew your plastic bag holder
- Fold your fabric in half hot dog style or lengthwise. Once folded, your fabric will be 9 inches by 22 inches.
- Sew along the long edge and finish your seam allowance so that it doesn’t fray. I used my serger for this.
Making the elastic casing
- Now, we are going to make a channel for the elastic to go into. This will cinch the bottom of the plastic bag holder so that the bags don’t fall out!
- Fold the bottom raw edge up toward the wrong side of your fabric by 1/4 inch.
- Press well.
- Now, fold the same edge up again by 1/2 an inch. This will make a nice finished edge.
- Press well.
- Mark a 1-2 inch section with pins, you don’t want to sew that section closed! Leave it open so that you can thread the elastic into it!
- Edge stitch (sew and 1/8 inch from the open folded edge) from 1 pin all the way around the bag holder and stop at the other pin.
Add the elastic into the casing
- Put a safety pin on one end of the elastic piece
- Use the safety pin to help guide the elastic into the casing
- Keep pushing the elastic through the casing until it comes out of the other side
I put a clip on the other end of my elastic so that it didn’t get lost when I was pulling it through! 
- Overlap the two ends of elastic by about 1/2 inch
- Sew together using a zig zag stitch. You may want to go over it a few times and make sure to backstitch so that it doesn’t come apart on you!
- Once the elastic is sewn together, pull gently on the plastic bag holder to get the elastic to slip fully up inside the casing
- Sew the opening of the casing closed
Finishing the top edge
- If you want to add elastic to the top, you can do that the same way we just did the bottom casing.
- Otherwise, we are just going to hem the top. I just hemmed it because I don’t think I’ll need elastic at the top too, but it’s a personal preference.
- To hem the top edge, fold the fabric to the wrong side of the fabric by 1/4 inch
- Press well
- Now, fold it again by 1/2 inch to the wrong side
- Press well
- Take your ribbon piece and fold it in half
- Tuck the ends of the ribbon into the hem of the plastic bag holder
- Sew all the way around the folded edge making sure to sew the ribbon into the hem to secure it
TA-DA!
Turn your plastic bag holder right side out and you are done! That was pretty fast, right? Now, stuff it full of bags and you’ll have a plastic bag handy when you need it!
Want more FUN DIY Freebies? Check out the FREEBIE TUTORIALS and the FREEBIE PATTERNS!
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These instructions are really easy to follow and makes a cute plastic bag holder. Thank you!