Plastic or paper? Cloth.

Remember when we were discussing the whole "Could you live without plastic bags?" thing? Well, here's a solution for those of you who have a sewing machine and an old t-shirt or two lying around that you don't wear anymore. I got the instructions for this when we went down to visit my wonderful cousins in Philly last June and they took us to the Fleisher where they take art classes. We finally got around to making this bag for Jamie for his birthday, out of an old WXJM shirt from his glory days of college radio. This shirt was an XL which I think was a little Xcessively Large, so I would recommend using M or L instead. 1. Lay out your T-shirt on the kitchen floor. (Over-exposed photo taking optional.)
2. Cut out a square around the neckline, preserving as much of the design as you want. Cut off the sleeves on the OUTSIDE of the seam. Leave the seam intact on the bag.
3. With the shirt right inside out, sew a seam along the top of the hem. Trim off excess fabric of the original hem. Go get one of the plastic bags you are trying to replace. Use it as a guide for turning in the corners of the hem and turn the bag right-side out. With corners tucked in, sew another seam across bottom of the bag to hold corners in place and strengthen the bag. Now reinforce the handles by folding them in half. Fold so that the neck edge is lined up with the arm edge. Sew along both sides of the original shoulder seam.

Voila! You have a handy tote! And it's machine washable!