I grabbed some of Phee’s hot pink wide mesh specifically for some produce bags and I thought I would share with you a quick step-by-step!
Here’s a half yard of the wide mesh lace, some elastic cording (non-stretch would work too!) and drawstring toggles. Picking up these supplies gave me a chance to check out the back packing supplies at our local outfitters, Redding Sports, Ltd.
What are you wanting to use the mesh bags for? They would be great for either produce while grocery shopping or even lingerie bags for washing your delicate pretties!
I decided on a 10″ wide bag so after squaring up my fabric I ended up with a 20″ wide by 18-ish” long piece of mesh to work with.
For the drawstring channel I used black twill tape and stitched it onto the wrong side of the mesh about 2″ down from the top edge. A straight stitch would be OK here since the tape has zero stretch but I opted for a zig-zag stitch to get a good catch on the mesh.
Fold the top edge down over the twill tape and sew, forming the drawstring channel.
The length of your drawstring will depend on what kind of cord you chose; I cut mine about 3″ on either edge of the bag to allow room for a knot and burn the ends (to prevent fraying).
Burn, baby, burn … just enough to melt the ends. This can be stinky!
Pretty neat that you can see the elastic strands in there, huh?
A little trick to make your life easier: stick a rigid straw through the channeling …
… then run the cording through the straw! Ta-dah!
Go ahead and add your toggle now. I did mostly because I kept losing it on my sewing table and wanted to be done with it!
Fold your mesh right sides together to form your bag!
I don’t really know what happened to this next photo AT ALL!
I sewed twill tape along the joining and the bottom edges but because I am not able to adjust the foot tension it wanted to shift a little. I just made sure to take my time and not let me lead foot take over! Folding over the tape and adding another seam really helped to make sure all of the mesh caught and to reinforce the edges.
Your bag is ready to turn right-side out! Don’t forget to tie a know in your cord so you don’t lose your toggle.
Now you are ready to roll to the grocery store or farmers’ market with a bright, cheerful, reusable AND machine washable produce bag. Enjoy!
Fabric: Wide Stretch Mesh from Phee
Elastic Cording and Toggles: Redding Sports Ltd.
pheefabrics.blog 