Large Paper Shopping Bags - TUTORIAL

Today I'd like to share with you a tutorial for making these great paper shopping bags.

These are very easy to make and here is what you will need to make a 12" x 10 1/2" bag:

- Two sheets of 12x12 scrapbooking paper per bag (I used the same design for both sides)

- paper trimmer

- sewing machine

After choosing your paper trim your sheets to each will be 12" high x 10 1/2" wide. These will make the front and back of your bag. The strips you just cut away will be used to make the handles.

Fold each of the strips in half. This will make the handles stronger and easier to hold.

Place the two folded pieces on top of each other with the cut edges on top.

While holding the two pieces together, bend them to make a "C" shape. The cut sides will be on top and inside of the "C". By folding the two pieces together you should end up with two handles that look the same.

Press down the folds and separate the handles.

This part is a bit tricky to explain, but here it goes:
Place one of the handles down on a table, making sure that the 'top part' of the handle is below the right and left sides of the handles. The top part of the handle will unfold towards the inside of the bag when you hold it.. If you place the handle the wrong way, you will notice that they will not open up properly when you hold the bag.

Sew (or staple) the handles (see below) to the bag side (I used a zig-zag stitch). Repeat it the other handle and other side of the bag, so you end up with two rectangles with handles.

Place the two sides together (with the white sides facing each other, handles lining up). Leaving the top open, stitch the three remaining sides using a straight stitch. I sewed about 0.5 cm from the edge using the biggest straight stitch to keep the number of holes to a minimum.

Here are some of my finished bags!

You can follow the same steps to make these bags in different sizes - depending on what size of paper you start off with, you may need to trim your strips to size (or fold them a few times more) so that your handles don't end up too wide.

I'd love to see your finished bags, so feel free to leave links to your pictures in the comments section.. :)