A Tale of Drawstring Bags: the Beginning
A few months ago, a friend was in town to visit her family. As her parents live very close to the house that we were renting this summer while we were selling and buying a house, we had the wonderful opportunity to join Ginna and her mother for afternoon tea and have her to our home for a visit during that time. While she was here, she inquired whether I still had any of those drawstring bags available…
About a year ago, I decided to make gift bags to sell. I excitedly made them and opened my Etsy shop, hoping that they would be a popular item. Not. one. bag. sold. So when we were moving this spring, I removed the listings and reclassified the bags from business inventory to personal use. My girls play with them nearly every day now. (My older daughter has exhibited the behavioral schema of “transporting” and “enveloping/enclosing” since she was a toddler, and these bags are perfect for her! Note: I learned about this behavioral schema earlier this year when we participated in Tinkergarten classes. My background is not in childhood development.)
And I used this bag for gift wrapping for a scarf that I sold around last Christmas.
And although my daughter generously offered to give my friend some of her bags, I decided to quickly make some new ones for her with an organic cotton/hemp fabric. I made them one thickness instead of lined, and I put the seam on the outside of the bags since she mentioned that she might be using them for bulk goods, such as flour and rice, as well as produce. Having the seam on the outside would prevent food from getting caught on the inside of the bag. I also made them fairly small so that she could get the portion sizes that she wanted without having large bags to carry, especially since she chooses to ride her bike instead of owning a car.
Soon after Ginna returned to her home, she sent me this snapshot of using the bags for produce instead of bulk foods—just because she couldn’t wait to use them.
Earlier this week, I reached out to her and asked her to send me some more pictures of the bags since I hadn’t taken any after making them. Although shown here only as produce bags, she does use them for bulk foods, too.
In the near future, I will be making more bags to sell—drawstring gift bags for Christmas gifts and cotton produce bags…
If you use drawstring bags or re-usable produce bags, please comment below, letting me know some of your favorite sizes, uses, and types of fabric. I would enjoy hearing from you!