How to make an up-cycled bag in 7 easy steps! #WildWEB

This blog will explain how you can take action to combat throw-away culture, it will show you how you can make something that’s really simple, really creative and that you can do your bit for conservation.

How can you make a super cool shopping bag from an everyday household item like an old pillowcase that would’ve been thrown away?

Watch the YouTube video and read the blog below to find out how to make your own up-cycled bag!

Step 1: Find an old pillowcase, measure the pillowcase to how short or long you want your bag to be. This is totally up to you, you have creative license with how long or short you want your shopping bag.

Step 2: Once you’ve measured the actual height of the bag, you need to make sure you have a straight line to cut, use a pencil or pen to mark the line and cut along it.

When using scissors always check with an adult or you can ask an adult to help you. The line you have cut will be the top of our shopping bag, so now you're going to hem the edge of the shopping bag.

What is a hem?

A hem is the very bottom, folded edge of a piece of clothing, check the bottom of your t-shirt.

Step 3: The material you have cut off is now spare material and you're going to use this for our handles, so put that to one side. Next, you're going to create a hem or edge at the end of the bag, for this, you'll need: a needle and thread. You can use whatever colour thread you like here. Fold over the fabric at the edge (where you just cut) and sew along the folded edge to create the hem. Make sure you are leaving some space between the folded edge and where you're sewing (about 1 inch). Be careful not to sew the bag back together!

Step 4: Now it's time to make the handles. You don’t want our handles to be too narrow, because that will be uncomfortable to wear. So, aim to make the handles 1 inch wide when you've finished, you'll need to cut a piece of fabric 3 inches wide to make them.

Step 5: Mark on the fabric the width of your handle and the length of your handle with a pencil or pen. Then carefully cut along these lines. You will now have two long pieces of fabric 3 inches in width. Measure the length of your handle to see how long you want them to be, it's good to leave extra length here.

Step 6: To create the handle turn the fabric over so the underside is facing you, fold over the edges so they meet in the middle (there should be no underside showing now) and sew them together. You can ask an adult to help you iron these folds in place, then it will be much easier to sew them in place!

Step 7: Now you have your handles it's time to attach them to the bag. Sew one handle at a time, place the ends of the handle inside the bag, the handle should create a loop on one side of the fabric of the bag, repeat on both sides. Remember to reinforce the sewing on the areas the handle and bag join because this is the area that is going to take most of the weight of whatever you put in the bag.

You should now have a finished bag! Make sure to send us your pictures of your bags!

Thanks for reading!