Another use for Green Bag Lady bags!

See Marilyn's great idea below! I LOVE it! Thanks Marilyn. I need to make some of these.

Teresa--

These make terrific shoe bags for travel.  Your shoes don’t rub together and scuff and they also don’t get any dirt on your clothing.  I did some rather fancy ones with appliques for Christmas presents, but the basic Green Bag Lady bag works for just every day.

I use the basic pattern but instead of sewing on handles, I make a casing at the top with an opening on each side and run two lengths of ribbon through the casing – one from each side – to make drawstrings.  Then I sew a seam up the middle of the bag to within about 4 inches of the top of the bag.  Depending on the size of your shoes, you might even be able to make them smaller than 18 x 18.  I think mine were only 13-14 inches wide.  The 18 inch length gives you plenty of room for the casing at the top.

I’ve also made others without the notch cut out so the bottom is flat.  For shoe bags it’s not so necessary to have that. I’ve attached a photo of one I made and “fancied” up.  I cut out a high heel applique and used a heat bonding material to iron it onto the shoe bag.  Then I sewed a button on the toe of the shoe for decoration.  These were gifts.  For my everyday shoe bags, I use whatever I can find that’s inexpensive and whatever ribbon the hobby store has on sale.  My fabric was 15” wide and 18” long and I cut it so the bottom of the bag was the fold of the material (one less seam to sew).  My crude “pattern” scribbled on a piece of legal pad says I turned down 3” then folded up an inch  so there wouldn’t be a raw edge exposed.  I sewed a seam at 5/8ths of an inch and 1 ½ inch from the top of the bag for the casing.  I carefully opened the seams on the side of the casing using a seam ripper.  I used two 40” lengths of grosgrain ribbon that’s 3/8” wide.  Starting at the bottom, sew up the middle to within 4 inches of the top to allow easy placement of shoes inside.  The overall dimensions could be adjusted for women with larger shoes (I wear size 7) or for men’s shoes or even children’s shoes.

Marilyn Puett

Huntsville, Alabama