Reuseable Grocery Bags & "Blanket"

Finished!

Back in the US, we always used reuseable grocery bags. Seeing the excessive amount of plastic bags as trash just about everywhere here made me want to use reuseable bags here, too. I procrastinated way too long but finally we purchased some fabric to make long lasting, washable bags. In part I was spurred into action by a new regulation requiring shops to charge customers for each plastic bag they use when making purchases. There seems to be daily reversals and changes regarding this new regulation so at the moment we are using our own bags and waiting to see how this all shakes out. The only trouble is that now we will have to buy bags for trash when previously we would re-use the grocery bags for that purpose. The purchased plastic bags are quite a bit more costly than the bags at many of the grocery stores. Hmmm. We must have plastic for the trash. I can't find paper. My hope is that they will start to use biodegradable bags as per another regulation.

For this project we found very heavy fabric, perfectly suitable for grocery bags and bought a ton (B comment in reality, 9 m).

One of the bags is missing in this group shot. (B comment: P tells me that these bags are GREEN with some brown trim and not the reverse.  Get it??)

 The maiden voyage of the new bags:

The bags are strong and hold a lot. Here's just a part of the groceries, most of the produce!

At the same time we purchased fabric to make the 9 "grocery" shopping bags, we also bought a more sedate fabric for a pair of other shopping bags. B says he likes them more because they have a military look.I don't know about that, but they are less flashy which is what I wanted: med/dark olive on the outside and red on the inside. We call them the "twins."

On the second outing of our green/brown grocery bags a lady inquired where we got them. She was speaking with Ibu Tin while I finished paying for the groceries. Bu Tin explained "Mrs. had made them." The lady then asked if they were for sale. I said, "Tidak. (no )." These are a huge step up from what they sell as reusable bags in the shops.

There was one more little project I finished- the "blanket." We bought a very nice piece of cotton, 2m long. I finally got around to squaring it up and doing a tiny folded hem all around the edges. I am calling it a blanket because there are times when I am chilly sitting on the sofa in the living room and the temp in the room is 26 or 27C (78.8-80.6F) so I needed a lightweight blanket. Hard to believe I could be chilly at that temp, right? Nonetheless, it's true. The answer? cotton voile. It's a very interesting print full of lots of colors.

B demonstrates how sheer the blanket is. It's the perfect weight.