A8: Fabric Construction
Design and create a simple bag using sewing machines and fabric.
For my fabric construction, I wanted to create something that would be useful in my everyday life. I have wanted to purchase reusable produce bags for a few months but I decided to make my own to satisfy the requirements of A8.
Reusable produce bags reduce waste by replacing the plastic produce bags found in grocery stores. They need to be lightweight and see-through in order to allow the cashier to see the produce and weigh the purchase correctly. I found a tutorial online which I used to plan and prototype the reusable grocery bags.
Based on notes from the video, I made the following sketch to plan the design for the muslin prototype.

I started building the reusable produce bag by creating a Muslin prototype. I cut two strips of fabric (10x21 and 4x24) and ironed seams in the shorter strip before hemming the edges. Next, I sewed the thinner strip onto the longer piece with twine sandwiched between in order to create a drawstring. Then, I sewed the two pieces on the bottom and right side to close the bag and flipped the whole thing inside out so the seams would not show.

The prototype was fairly easy to create, but I had made a mistake by stitching the side of the bag up too far. This meant that when I reversed the bag to hide the stitch, I also flipped the drawstring so that the extra string was stuck on the inside of the bag. I learned that the stitch up the side of the bag needed to end before reaching the fabric lining at the top of the bag.
For the final product, I used a thin and flexible material left over from a Halloween costume, and scraps from an old t-shirt to make the top lining. By using leftover fabric scraps, I was able to create a product that was truly zero waste.
The biggest difference between the muslin prototype and the final product was working with unfamiliar fabrics. Unlike the Muslin, the T-shirt fabric could not hold the heat from the iron, so it was impossible to crease the fabric as I had in the prototype to ensure that the stitch would connect all the layers of fabric. Likewise, the transparent material I used for the main part of the produce bag was extremely thin and was difficult to guide through the sewing machine. While making the prototype out of muslin helped me plan how I wanted to construct making the final product, it did not help me to learn how to work with the materials I needed to work with.
Despite the difficulties working with the final-product materials, I was really happy with the way the final product turned out.


Analysis
The final product functioned as expected and is strong enough to carry fruits and vegetables in without breaking, despite my concerns about seams ripping. After taking the final product with me to the grocery store, I found that the bag is highly functional and does the job. However, one produce bag is not enough to use for grocery shopping, as I usually buy many different types of fruits and vegetables, so I would need to make more to actually have a zero waste shopping trip.
I think if I were to remake the produce bag, I would have liked to use a different fabric that would give the bag more personality and visual interest. I also thought about including a second strip of opaque fabric at the bottom of the bag, which I think could make the produce bag stronger while still being transparent. Using a more colorful fabric would make the bag more fun to use and bring joy to a zero-waste grocery shopping trip!
