My daughter recently got her driver's license, which is really strange because I swear it was just the other day she was snuggled up in footed pajamas, watching cartoons and coloring. Well, actually, I think that was the other day, but you get my point. Time flies, and I really don't know when or how my precious newborn baby became the beautiful young woman she is today.
Anyway, since Lil is an only child, she was blessed that right around the time she was learning to drive, we were in the market for a new-to-us car, meaning that our trusty, 10+ year old, high-mileage car was up for grabs. We knew that if we traded it in, we would get next to nothing for it, and that if Lil had to go car shopping, she'd be paying way more for something comparable. So, we decided to gift our previously loved car to her.
Now, I think everybody remembers their first car. Whether you saved all of your money to buy it yourself or whether it was gifted to you by someone, whether it was brand new, gently used or a piece of 💩 on four wheels, it was yours and I bet you loved it. You took care of it, because you had the pride of ownership. It was your own personal property that you could do what you wanted with and you probably even named it.
Well, that's where Lil stands today. She loves her car. She's named it and she's in the process of decorating it in a very cool, pink/green/blue tropical vibe. She's found steering wheel and seatbelt covers, dashboard ornaments, stickers and magnets, license plate frames and air fresheners, but the one thing she has not been able to find is a small, cute trash bag that matches her car's décor and is functional. And believe me, I searched. Try it yourself. I dare you to find me a cute, pink car trash bag that's small enough that it doesn't need its own seat in the car and inexpensive enough that you don't have to take out a second mortgage on your house to buy it. Go ahead, I'll wait...
Okay, now that we're in agreement that the bag we were looking for simply doesn't exist, we knew that we were going to have to come up with our own plan if Lil really wanted one for her car. We knew that we wanted it to have a strap to be able to hang it around the shifter, that it needed to be small enough that it wasn't in the way of the passenger's leg room, but large enough that it could hold more than just a gum wrapper if necessary, and most importantly, be pink, girly and have a waterproof(ish) interior.
My original plan was to try and purchase the fabric to make the bag myself, but after a trip to Hobby Lobby, I came across the perfect sized pink tote bag ($1.49), some pretty floral fabric ($8.99/yd, on sale for 30% off) and a clearance roll of heavy pink thread ($0.89) that I thought would look nice as an accent trim against the floral fabric. Other materials needed are a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and some good sewing needles, or a sewing machine if you have one, but I neither have one nor know how to use one. I purchased a half yard of the floral fabric and got my materials ready.
You'll also need some adhesive hem tape and an iron before you get started.
The first step I did was to lay the fabric out flat and iron out any folds or creases in it. This step is important because we'll be making our own creases in the fabric and we won't want to get the creases we purposely made confused with the ones that were already in it.
Now, here's where we start to make our own creases. I folded the fabric exactly in half and ironed the center crease so that it ended up looking like this...
The reason I did this is because I didn't want the underside of the fabric to be visible in the bag and this center crease is going to be helpful in folding the two sides in so that there are clean edges all around the inner pouch of the bag. Hopefully, this will make sense later even if it's not now.
Then, I folded one side of the fabric in just past the center crease I just made.
And then I ironed the folded edge down to make the crease on the left in the picture above.
I made a smooth edge with the fabric on the right by folding in about a half inch of the fabric and ironing it flat (pictured below).
When this was done, I folded my new right edge into the center point, this time overlapping the fabric that had already been folded in from the left. Again, I ironed the fold on the right side down to make a smooth edge.
Now that I had a nice smooth piece of fabric with the pretty print visible on both sides, I again folded it in half to get an idea of the size of the tote bag lining I was going to have. The way I imagined the bag working was that the center crease I had made would run along the bottom of the tote bag. I laid my folded piece of fabric down and put the tote bag on top of it to make sure I had enough fabric.
I made sure there was about an inch or two of extra fabric on either side of the tote bag and then I cut the excess fabric from the side.
Now that I had the piece of fabric that would be the bag lining cut to size, I unfolded it and using the creases I had made as guides, I refolded it, one step at a time, adding a piece of hem tape and ironing it to seal the folds together in each step.
Once I had my double sided sealed up piece of fabric, I flipped it over so that the folded over center point was on the underside and I folded it a half inch on each of the long, rough edged sides of the fabric, again ironing them to create a crease.
I again used the hem tape inserted under the folded edges to seal them up and when done I folded the opposite edges in together to loosely form the pouch I was trying to create. I made sure to keep about a 2 inch flat base for the pouch (which you can kind of see in the picture above) and I sewed up the sides just a little so that my floral material was now a basic little bag on its own. For my own sanity, and for the sake of the next step I was planning, I did not sew all the way to the top of the pouch, as my plan was to fold the top edges of my new floral pouch over inside the small pink tote bag.
My original plan was to have the floral pouch be a separate, removable piece of the trash bag. I wanted to be able to use the large Ziploc bag to fold over the floral pouch and then insert the whole thing into the pink tote, making it spill-proof inside and changeable if the plastic bag got gross, but this idea was an epic fail. With no structural integrity to hold it up, the floral pouch and Ziploc bag would just fall down when inserted into the pink tote. It became clear that I was going to have to permanently sew both the pouch and the Ziploc bag inside the tote. When this was done, I was left with a cute little trash bag and some fabric scraps, which I decided to use to make a little pocket for the front of the trash bag.
I started by cutting the scrap fabric into two equal strips. I then lined the strips up and folded in the sides on both, ironing them to create smooth edges.
Next, I laid the two pieces of fabric on top of each other, again making sure the pretty outside of the fabric was visible on both sides. I used my hem tape to create one smooth, dual sided strip of fabric. When this was done, I folded my new fabric strip in thirds, again ironing and using hem tape to seal up any rough edges.
Once both sides were folded in and sealed up, I sewed the pocket to the front of the bag, making sure the folded edges were not visible on the outside.
Because of the uncertainty of exactly how I was going to accomplish this project coupled with the fact that I don't have or know how to use a sewing machine and that the thread I had purchased thinking it would be a cute accent was actually the worst, most difficult thread to try to work with, this project took a very long time to finish. Much, much longer than I anticipated. However, Lil and I are both thrilled with the end result. The bag is the perfect size for her car. It looks cute, it's basically flat when not being used and it's a great size to hold any trash she might accumulate in her car on any given day. I'm so happy that I had enough leftover fabric to make the front pocket. The floral fabric is so pretty, but really wasn't as visible as I would've liked inside the tote. So, the pocket on the outside is the perfect accent to really show off the floral print. And it's actually very roomy and useful. In the picture below, I put a 24oz. water bottle and a 20oz. Gatorade bottle in the trash part and a small notepad and pen, a pair of sunglasses, a container of Altoids, a lip balm and a pair of earbuds in the pocket.
The picture below shows how all of those items actually fit into the pocket.
And here's one more picture to show you just how roomy the inside of the bag is when opened up.
Lil and I really could not be more pleased with how this project turned out. My total materials cost was under $6 (although that doesn't include the hem tape or sewing needles that I already had on hand). I hope that this tutorial was helpful to you, or that it at least inspired you to come up with your own ideas for making a custom trash bag for your own car. ❤- Kay
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