Borrow Bags


“A typical single-use plastic bag is used for around 11 minutes, yet it’s estimated to take over 450 years to break down.”
Market Garden Produce are encouraging their customers instead to bring their own re-usable bag and, in the event they forget one, they are able to borrow a Transition Woodbridge ‘Borrow Bag’, which they can then return to the shop when they next return.
All bags are made from volunteers, out of unusable material that is upcycled from worn shirts, sheets, curtains etc.

Want to join in making the bags?

In Person
Transition Woodbridge upcycling old, unwanted material into “Borrow Bags” on the 3rd Thursday of every month, 9.30am to 11.30am at Fiona’s Fabric in Gobbit’s Yard. If anyone has any such material, or cotton reels, please do bring it along, but don’t worry if not. Sewing machine skills are preferable and booking is required just to make sure our numbers aren’t too high. Please contact charlie2zakss@gmail.com for more info.

At home
If you would like to help make some bags for our Borrow Bag scheme but would rather make them at home, please watch this video for instructions on how we are making them. It was not made by us but explains the process nicely.


Here are a few differences with our bags:

1) you don’t need to do the very last step on the video, where she sews corners on the bottom of the bag
2) you can change the size slightly according to the size of your material
3) you can change the length of the strap (some people prefer long and some short)
4) we have “Borrow Bag turtle patches” that need sewing with a zigzag stitch onto the bag either before (ideally) or after you have made the bag and we will need to get these to you (or you can get the bags to us and we can sew them on for you).

We are using unwanted, unusable cotton, polycotton or linen material, as this is washable and suitable for vegetables. If you need material, want to collect patches, drop off bags, or have any other questions please contact charlie2zakss@gmail.com