Handmade Holiday: Plastic Grocery Bag Holder

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I have two goals regarding Christmas gifts this year: 1) All of them must be handmade, or at least include an element of handmade, by me or a fellow Etsy seller. 2) I want to have them ready to give before Thanksgiving (or at least 90% finished). This is a tall order for a stay-at-home mom and full-time grad student, but it is doable, especially with all of these fantastic tutorials and gift-giving blogs.

I will be posting what I've made as I finish the projects along with a link on where you can get the directions yourself. I'm attempting a gift-giving no-no by posting these pics ahead of time, but my family doesn't read my blog anyway. Plus, I won't say who it's for. We'll see how this goes....

First up was a Plastic Grocery Bag Holder by Sew4Home.

I made one of these for myself as one of my very first sewing projects earlier this year. It was a good beginner project for me, but this second one was much cleaner and aligned. This holder will contain a lot of bags - more than any other holder I've seen at friends' houses. And if you use fabric that compliments your decor, it's like fabric art on the wall.

Advice: Pay very close attention to measurements of where to place the handle on the top portion so that the handle will align exactly in the center. Otherwise it'll be a bit lop-sided. Also, I suggest making the handle 16" initially instead of the 11" it calls for. 11" seemed to short to align it perfectly centered.

Sew4Home has been one of the best resources for me this year. The site has clear explanations of sewing terms, tutorials for basic sewing skills, and some of the best tutorials build around a fabric colorway (scheme/theme). (I can't believe they're free! Hope they don't read this and start charging. :P) If you are interested in sewing, this site and this project are great places to start.