DIY for Environmentalists: Crafting, Making, Project How-to's, and more!
Ta dah! The possibilities of sizes and shapes are endless! You can even make round buckets or shallow trays. What a practical way to upcycle such great fabric! And it costs practically nothing!
Have you tried crafting with coffee sacs? What have you made with it? Please share in the comments!
About Karen LeeKaren lives a simple, frugal, green life and shares her eco tips and news on ecokaren. She leads Eco Etsy Team, an awesome group of enthusiastic green business owners on Etsy. She sells green goodies in her Etsy shop and writes for various green blogs. When she's not leading the team or blogging, she is a chauffeur to two greenagers, wife to an accidental recycler, master chef to hungry locavores, seamstress, knitter, and dumpster diver, not necessarily in that order.
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Hi there! I'm Becky Striepe, a green crafter and vegan foodie living in Atlanta, Georgia with my husband and two cats. My mission is to make eco-friendly crafts and vegan food accessible to anyone who wants to give them a go.
Hello! My name is Bonnie Getchell and overall, I'm a craft nerd! I love making crafts, re-doing furniture, and anything along those lines. I especially love creating items that are from recycled materials like toilet paper rolls, bottles, etc.
I'm the lucky momma of two little blonde daddy-clones--we spend our days doing elaborate art projects, trashing the house, eating cheese cubes and oranges, and waiting for my partner to get home from his day job so we can pester him.
Kelly covers visual arts in and around Washington, DC for DCist and is editor of Crafting a Green World. Kelly has also been published by Bust Magazine and you can find her byline at Indie Fixx and Etsy’s Storque and has taught in Etsy’s virtual lab on the topic of green crafting.
Karen, I love this post! I also appreciate that you point out burlap’s ‘tricky’ features. At the end of the day I’m covered in burlap fibers but it all pays off in the long run. Great tutorial
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Thanks Tanya. I didn’t wash these but was afraid to clog up my washing machine. I prolly would be covered in burlap fiber too if I worked with it as often as you do. Your bags are gorgeous!
Love these! I need to find a coffee shop that has sacs to give away!
Most coffee shops that roast their own coffee have tons of sacs that they throw away or donate. So, ask the manager. They’d love to give them to you for free…at least the one that I went to were glad to give them away.
I love this idea! They look so neat!
Thanks!
Oo, these could actually look quite steampunk if put together right – especially with the khaki lining on the first one.
Most impressive, and tips on where to find completely free crafting materials are not exactly unwelcome!
You can make this with denim, khaki, upholstery fabric, or canvas too. They’ll work well as lining also. Decorate it any way you like!!
i like to insert that really cheap needlepoint canvas (10 cents a sheet) to add stiffness to things like this! ( i know, defeats the purpose of eco friendly, but maybe you have some laying around to recycle!) = )
That’s a good idea…like you said, if you had some lying around.
I posted a tutorial on making natural fabric stiffeners after posting this. Check it out. http://craftingagreenworld.com/2011/07/21/diy-natural-fabric-stiffeners/