How To Make A Plastic Bag Holder | Sew It In About 20 Minutes

Plastic bag holders are simple tube-shaped fabric containers that store bags neatly and dispense them one at a time through a stretchy opening.

That overflowing drawer of grocery bags finally gets a home. A hanging plastic bag holder is essentially a fabric tube with an elastic bottom — you stuff bags in the top and pull them out one at a time from the bottom, like a tissue box. The project takes about 20 minutes with basic sewing skills, and the most common pattern needs just a fat quarter of cotton fabric, elastic, and a ribbon or loop for hanging.

What You Need For This Project

Most tutorials agree on a short list of materials. A fat quarter (an 18 x 22-inch piece of fabric) is the standard starting point, though published patterns range from 16 x 21 inches to 19 x 22 inches depending on how much capacity you want. You can also cut your own rectangle from yardage if you prefer a custom size.

• Cotton fabric (a fat quarter or 18 x 22-inch rectangle)
• Elastic — common lengths are 6, 8, or 9 inches, or roughly a half-inch shorter than your fabric width
• Ribbon or fabric for a hanging loop, about 5 to 9 inches long
• Thread, scissors, and a safety pin for threading the elastic

Natural fibers like cotton, flax, or hemp are the best choice if you plan to launder the holder often. Prewash the fabric on a hot cycle first so it shrinks before you sew — the finished holder keeps its shape through repeated washes when the fabric does its shrinking upfront.

The Basic Sewing Steps, In Order

The construction is the same across nearly every pattern: turn your fabric into a tube, add two hemmed casings for elastic, then attach a hanger.

1. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise with right sides together, and sew down the long edge to create a tube.
2. Fold down and hem both short ends to form casings — one for the hanging loop and one for the elastic.
3. Thread the elastic through the bottom casing using a safety pin, pulling it through and sewing the ends together.
4. Attach a ribbon or folded fabric tab to the top seam as the hanging loop.

Success looks like this: the holder hangs smoothly from the loop, the bottom cinches closed with elastic, and the top opening stays wide enough to stuff in a bundle of bags. Use it by pushing clean plastic bags in from the top, then reaching in from the bottom to pull one out at a time.

If you prefer a sturdier finished product over a quick DIY, we tested the best-rated options on the market — inspect our tested plastic bag holder roundup to see which ones hold up best in daily use.

Mistakes That Ruin The Holder

The most common failures happen in the casing. Sewing the casing closed before inserting elastic traps the elastic outside, and forgetting to leave a small opening in the casing seam means you cannot get the elastic through at all. Both mistakes mean seam ripper time, so double-check your casing seam before moving on.

Fabric direction also trips up newer sewists. If your fabric has a directional print, make sure it is oriented right-side up when folded — a finished holder with upside-down print is disappointing after the effort. Raw edges that fray in the wash are another complaint; finish your seams or use a zigzag stitch on the edges to keep the holder looking tidy through many launderings.

How Big Should The Holder Be?

Pattern sizes vary because there is no standard specification for a plastic bag holder — every set of instructions is a creator’s tutorial rather than a product manual. The most common sizes are 18 x 22 inches (the fat quarter) and 16 x 21 inches, but you will also see 18 x 29 inches for a taller, high-capacity version and 15 x 18 inches for a compact one that fits on a cabinet door. A wider rectangle creates a fatter bag, while a taller rectangle holds more bags in a longer tube.

If you are not sure which size suits your space, measure the door or cabinet where you plan to hang it first, then choose a pattern that matches. A fat quarter works for most kitchen cabinets and closet doors and gives you the easiest fabric-shopping experience.

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