button closure for reusable bags

I absolutely love the little, reusable bags that Whole Foods has come out with! It's about a quarter of the size of a regular, reusable bag and actually holds quite a bit. I love mine so much that I keep it in my purse so that I always have it with me to use. The only problem is that it kept coming unfolded in my purse, so over the weekend I sewed some buttons on it and a ribbon, loop closure. I'll to my best to explain what I did here!

Supplies:
basic sewing supplies (needle, scissors, etc.)
fray stop or clear nail polish
ribbon
floss to match
2 buttons - I used a button w/ a shank for the button that the ribbon loops around that is sewn at the bottom of the bag

1. I just eyed this part, but if you want to you can measure to the middle of the top your bag and then down a couple of inches and mark w/ a pen. Do the same on the bottom on the same side. Fold up your bag just to make sure that when your bag is folded in half, you can see a button on each side. When the bag is open, the buttons will be on the same side of the bag. Hope that makes sense! Fold your bag in half and take your ribbon and hold it at one marked spot on the bag, loop it up and around to the other side of the bag (like if you were actually going to loop it around a button) and back down to where you started. Add about 1/2 inch and then cut. Sorry. I didn't measure! I just eyed it and made it work. lol Put fray stop or clear nail polish on each end of the ribbon and let dry.

2. Fold each end in about 1/4 of an inch and loop the ribbon so that the two ends are together. Hand stitch about 1/8 inch from the end.

3. Place ribbon on top of your bag where your mark is and stitch into place.


4. Just for fun, I added a button on top of the ribbon! It's purely decorative. :-)

5. Stitch the button with the shank to the bottom of your bag.

6. That's it! Fold your bag in half and loop the ribbon around the button and there you go! Nice and neat and really cute!


7. Here's what it looks like from above so you can see both buttons. And a closer show of the just-for-fun button on the ribbon. :-)


I hope this made sense! I am by no means someone qualified to instruct people on how to make something. lol Especially when I just made this up as I went a long! I used my buttoned bag the other day at Whole Foods and my cashier really loved it. I do too!!!

Enjoy and God Bless!
di