How to brighten up a 'green' bag

As this month is Plastic Free July  I thought I would share this idea I came across a couple of years ago. I was in KMart in Mt.Isa and saw a lady with a Woolworths 'green' bag that had been embellished with yo yos and it looked very bright and cheery. I asked her where she bought it from and she said it was from the markets in Townsville. I had never seen these bags before that but have seen a few since then and they have all been decorated differently.

 They are quite easy to make. Just buy a hessian/jute bag from the supermarket or elsewhere. The Woolworths ones are really great to use as you just have to cover up the words on the tree and add the yo yos in between the leaves.

 Gather up your scraps of fabric and cut out some circles in the size you prefer. Then sew around the outside of the circle, pull it up into a yo yo and then sew on a button if you want to hot glue them on but I usually sew mine on and add the buttons while sewing them on.

Lay your flowers on the tree and move them around until you are happy with the placement. I usually pin mine then in readiness for sewing them on. 

 Then either heat up your glue gun and glue them on or start sewing each flower on and add a button to cover up the stitching in the centre. If using a glue gun make sure you put something inside the bag to stop the glue from sticking the bag together.

 

The bag above was one I saw at church which the owner had bought when funds were being raised to help Fresh Hope which is a local organisation which works with mums who suffer from drug or alcohol abuse and their children. Not all all the flowers on this one are yo yos.


Yo yos are really easy to make and there are lots of tutorials on YouTube and on blogs including this one on Positively Splendid.

 This bag was made by my friend Blinky from The Herb Barrow who does some beautiful work. 

It is a great way to use up scraps and I have made a couple of these for various swaps we have had on the Down to Earth Forums....

...including this one that I sent to my swap partner for our 'Something for Christmas' swap. It is just a nice way to spruce up an otherwise boring 'green' bag and I have seen some plain hessian/jute bags in the shops which are just a blank canvas waiting for someone's creativity to brighten them up.