Grocery Bags

We shop alot at member's club stores where they do not provide any grocery bags but you can recycle their packaging boxes if desired.  In our cars, I have saved plastic and paper bags, thermal bags I have bought and a couple given from work, and a few boxes to keep the groceries in place so they won't be flying around when we make a turn or go thru a bump.

I noticed that when we shop at the member's club, alot of time the boxes of goodies we bought are huge and can take up a whole bag for itself.  As our kitchen is on the second floor, hauling all our shopping up those stairs can be a marathon at times.  I find the two shoulder bags we have are very useful and helpful but they are kinda small and worn out.

So over the weekend, I decided to make grocery bags for my car.  I know it has to be bigger and with long shoulder strapes so my hands are free to carry more shopping and limit our trips up and down those stairs.  I had bought some upholstery fabrics a while ago that was on sale and I had quite a bit of yardage left.  I had bought these fabrisc for making ironing boards as they are strong and steady and 100% cotton.  They are not really 'pretty' fabrics but I thought its for a grocery bag so its ok.

Since I am still playing with my new machine, I decided to fill the pocket front with the embroidery stitches so I can see how all the stitches look like.  I didn't get to try them all but I think I got to the ones that I thought look good from the manual.

I used a pattern but changed it up alittle bit, I increased the height of the bag an extra 1 3/4" and changed the strapes to be wider and added multiples layers for strenght.  The bags turned out pretty good.  Very roomy ~ 8" wide.  We used it over the weekend and I have to say it was very strong.  I think these bags will last for a while.