Reusable Produce Bags

These reusable produce bags are way easier than they look and would make a great homemade gift especially for a little girl’s play kitchen.  Feel free to share the pattern and do whatever you want, just please link it back to Modern Homemakers 🙂

I’m always looking for ways to keep plastic out of my kids toys, which typically means making them.  Here are a few toys I’ve made free tutorials for if you’re interested in making your own handmade gifts:

This Barbie bathtub is made from paper mache.

Play food is fun for little girls and little boys!

 This Toy Train was one of my favorite sewing projects!

 

Reusable Produce Bags

Crochet Pattern – Reusable Produce Bag

Crochet produce bag (play food)

H hook

Chain 3, join loop

Chain 2, 9 sc, join

Chain 2, 2sc in each space (18 total)

Ch 2, 2dc in each space (36 total)

Ch 2, (2dc, then 2dc in same space) x 12 (total of 48 dc)

Ch 2, 48 dc

[Ch 2 (1 dc, chain 4, skip 3 spaces) x 12] repeat row 11 times, cut and hide thread

Ch 60, weave through top row, join loop, cut and hide thread.

 

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT – REUSABLE PRODUCE BAGS

Now before I show you how to make this crochet produce bag I have to do a shameless plug and show you what’s inside of it. These are all free patterns, and I have videos for all of them. So if you haven’t checked it out, crochet cherries, crochet corn, and yes it does open. Crochet Kiwi, I actually haven’t made this video yet, (cough) it’ll be up soon. Crochet orange, and crochet apple. So you can put whatever you want in here and it’s just such a cute easy little project that looks way more complicated than it is trust me. Modern homemakers video intro and theme song- helping moms.

So to make your crochet produce bag we need an H hook and I’m using this yarn right here and hopefully this is enough. It really doesn’t take much yarn and I’m trying to use up some scraps here. The first thing we’re going to do is chain 3, if you don’t know how to chain go check out my video how to start a crochet chain. And then we’re going to go in and join that loop. So we’ve got a little circle here. I’m going to go ahead and move this tail to the side here and we’re going to try to hide that as we’re working.

We’re going to chain 2 and we’re going to work 9 single crochets so we’re going to go in to the center, pull that loop aside wrap around and go through, 1 single crochet, 2 so you go in grab some thread and pull it through, we’ve got 2 on the hook at that point. Wrap around go through so we’ve got 3, 4, starting to hide this thread at this point, 5 6 7 8 9, so you’ve got a cute little circle here at this point and you’re going to join to that 2nd chain 2. Now we’re going to chain 2 and we’re going to do 2 single crochet in each space so we’re going to have 18 when we’re done. I’ll show you the first couple.

 

1 2 in the same space. Then 1 2 in the next space, and you’re going to go around until you have 18 total single crochets. So I’ve worked the 18 single crochet all the way around and you can count them and double check yourself so you don’t mess up this early on. I’m going to go in and join the loop and the next thing we’re going to do is 2 chains again 1 2 and I’m going to work 2 double crochet in each space around. That’s going to give us a total of 36. So going in the first 1, wrap around go through you’ve got 3 on the hook, wrap around go through 2, wrap around go through 2 that’s how you do a double crochet I’ve got a video on that too if you don’t know how to do it.

And I’m going to work 1 more in that same hole. I go much slower in the other video, right now I’m just showing you the pattern. So that’s 2 in each space and I’m going to work around until I have 36 double crochet all the way around. 34 35 36 then we’re going to join the loop again. Now we’re going to chain 2 and we’re going to do 1 double crochet in this space 1 double crochet in the next space, so 2 double crochet, and then we’re going to do 2 double crochet in the same space. So, 1 2 in that same hole.

And we’re going to repeat that all the way around until we have a total of 48 double crochet. So that again was 1 double crochet in this space, 1 double crochet in the next space 2 double crochet in the next space. So 1 2, 2 double crochet boom boom and 2 in the same hole. All the way around you’ll have 48 total double crochet when you’re done. 47 48 and then we’re going to join our loop here, grab some thread pull it through. Now we’re going to chain 2 and we’re just going to work 48 double crochet all the way around, 1 double crochet in each of those spaces, 1, 1 in the next, you get the idea.

I’ll see you in 48, 47 48. You can see it’s kind of starting to curve a little bit and we’re going to join our loop here. Now this is our trickiest row I guess , we’re going to chain 2 and we’re going to do 1 double crochet and then we’re going to chain 4 so 1 2 3 4 , now we’re going to skip 3 spaces, and we’re going to do a double crochet in the next space. You can see that makes that gap here that we’re going to have all the way around. So we’re just going to do that all the way around, 1 2 3 4 skip 3 and we’re going to double crochet in this 4th space. So we’re going to do that a total of 12, we’ll have 12 double crochet, so one more time 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 going I the 4th.

I’ve gone all the way around and I want to show you how to check yourself. This is where we started this is our chain 2 and this is our first double crochet so we’re going to count every double crochet so we get to 12 so 123456789101112, then I chained 4, and we’re going to join our loop again. And this is going to repeat counting this row 11 times so get used to it. So chain 2, we’re going to work our double crochet right in that first double crochet from the last row you can see it’s right on top of there 1234 work a double crochet you won’t even have to count your skip spaces anymore because you’re going to just keep going in that double crochet. And I’m going to do that all the way around so this is going to give you 11 rows total so you’ll be able to count when we’re done. 1 2 all the way up to 11.

So I did that 11 rows and you can count 1234567891011 and I just wanted to show this is one we just made and this is one that’s been played with for awhile so it does kind of stretch out as it’s used. So you can see it’s not a huge difference but there is a difference so this is probably going to stretch out a little too, just like this one did. Anyway now I’m going to cut my thread and hide it, down the spine here. Always want to make sure and tuck your thread in really well. And then we’re going to make the

drawstring. So we’ve got our yarn and we’re going to start over here and make a loop and we’re going to chain 60, and don’t cut that don’t do anything to it. We’re going to take that tail here, and take our produce bag and the top row we’re going to weave this in and out over these loops. So these back two I’m just going to treat as one and there you go. So that is all the way around, and now we’re going to take this and see where it’s going to be connected here, and join the loop. Go into the last, join, snip, tie off and I’ll hide this short thread, it’s kind of tedioius and I won’t make you watch me hide both of them.

Go back and forth here, and these may pop out over time when your kids are playing with them and you just pop them right back in. Unlike a plastic toy when it gets broken it’s done. See all the poor injuries on my hands. We’ve been gardening a lot lately and those raspberry bushes got me even with gloves. OK, so you would hide that other thread too, but I want to show you how awesome we are. So you just grab a thing on each side and pull and that’s how you close it.

Ok it’s time to go shopping, go buy a bag of oranges here and you just grab on the ends of the loops and just hours of fun you and your kids can have shopping and putting produce away and so fun. And you might also enjoy another really easy video how to make a crochet orange. I think it’s called just crochet orange I’ll put a link at the bottom. Super easy, and I don’t even use polyfil I use scraps of fabric and yarn, so this could be a free project if you have some scrap orange around. Please subscribe to our youtube channel. You might also like crochet food.