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    Home » HEALTH » Natural Living

    What to do with old fitted sheets; Make a Garment Bag!

    Published: Sep 30, 2010 / Modified: May 27, 2020 by: Dr. Karen Lee / This post may contain affiliate links. As Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. /

    up-cycled old sheets garment bags

    I just cleaned out my linen closet and came up with a few old fitted sheets with worn out elastic, faded colors or prints, and some that are just tired looking. I think many of them are considered 'vintage' by some standards. Since I didn't want to throw them out but can't donate them (who would want to use someone else's old sheets?) or can't make anything that I can go out of the house with, I decided to make something really functional and practical.

    Garment Bags!

    Why garment bags? Despite my efforts of trying to keep the closets clean, the shoulders of suits and dresses get dusty. And I don't have cloth or canvas garment bags because, frankly, they are expensive. They are priced $10 and up and if I had to buy them for every dress and suits I have, the garment bags would cost more than the clothes I have in my closet. So, I thought covering my seldomly worn dresses and my husband's suits with nifty cloth garment bags would be a great way to use up the old sheets.

    The tutorial requires sewing but if you don't want to sew, you can use iron-on hemming tapes or safety pins to pin the edges. Since you are just covering your clothes in them and storing them - not carrying them around - you don't have to worry about the pins opening up and poking you. I don't have pictures with pins but you'll know where to pin them when you see these pictures.

    You'll Need:

    1. Old Fitted Sheet - any size
    2. Sewing machine
    3. scissors
    4. cloth hanger
    5. thread
    6. measuring tape

    Instructions: **Please excuse the wrinkled sheet. I was in a rush to post this.**

    1. Trim the elastics.

    Trimming elastic of old fitted sheets with scissors

    2. Cut the corner seams.

    cutting old sheets with scissors

    3. Fold the sheet, right sides together, so that unopened seam makes one side of the garment bag. You can use two separate panels if you don't have enough fabric to fold it down this way. I am using a Queen Size sheet here and I was able to get two bags out of them. I can probably get one more panel out of the sheet and combine with another panel from another sheet and get a full bag out of it. The key is to salvage as much fabric from the sheet as you can.

    4. Place the hanger you'll be using for your suit of dress and place it on top of the sheet

    clothes hanger on top of sheets

    5. Cut around the hanger's curvature with 1" seam allowance. Cut the bag 24" across and 37" in length. I measured my husband's suit in its hanger and came up with that measurement. You can tailor this measurement to what ever size you need.

    clothes hanger on top of old sheets that were cut to the hanger shape

    6. Mark the hole where the hanger handle will poke through. I marked the hole to be about 2" in the middle but this is totally up to you.

    tape measurer on old sheets

    7. Sew the three sides, except for the hole where the hanger handle will poke through.

    sewing old sheets into garment bag

    8. Sew the top of edge where the bag will drape over the hanger but not the hole. Spread the seams, and pin the seams down. Sew across the edges of the holes a few times.
    pins in old sheet to hold in place before sewing sewing the old sheets in sewing machine

    You can either sew the bottom edge or you can leave it raw. It's going to hang in the closet so who cares if the edge is not finished. But if you like it to be neat and clean, you can fold up the edge and sew the seam .

    That's it! Voila!

    old sheet turned into garment bag

    I was lazy and didn't trace the hanger for this one and just stitched it straight across. It's not bad but it doesn't look neat even in my lazy standards.

    white sheet squaresheet garment bag

    I like using sheets to make these because they are light in weight. The only drawback to these are that you can't see the clothes inside through a window that commercial garment bags have but I can live without the inconvenience when I am reusing unusable sheets to make them. And they are free!!

    On my next post, I'll show you how to make reusable grocery bags with old sheets. It's so simple that it's another "Why didn't I think of that?" type of a project.

    Have a great weekend!

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    About Dr. Karen Lee

    I am a food writer, recipe developer, and a cookbook author sharing my family’s favorite simple & easy, allergy-friendly recipes with you! Let's connect on Instagram || Facebook || Pinterest || YouTube Learn more about me on the ABOUT page.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Megan says

      June 05, 2011 at 4:27 pm

      You could add a window with remnants vinyl if you wanted to - I see small pieces all the time in the remnants bin at the fabric store. Or you could upcycle one of the plastic bag-boxes that new sheets come in, and cut clear windows from that material.
      I would trace a box the size you want on the inside of the garment bag and cut an x from corner to corner, then fold back the triangles, trim them (and iron the fold) so they fold over with a half inch overlap, and sew the vinyl in place on top of the fold (still inside out, so it looks nice on the outside.

      • ecokaren says

        June 05, 2011 at 10:04 pm

        Thanks a great idea! I do have some of those bags saved from sheets! Thanks Megan!

    2. kathy says

      October 01, 2010 at 11:20 am

      very creative....most things have a second life.

    3. kathy says

      October 01, 2010 at 11:19 am

      good idea....most things have a second life.

      • Karen says

        October 02, 2010 at 8:32 am

        Yes they do and I love coming up with ideas to give them a second life!

    4. Jen on the Edge says

      September 30, 2010 at 5:02 pm

      Wow, what a great idea!

      • Karen says

        October 02, 2010 at 8:31 am

        Take out your sewing machine Jen! I'm not sure if a glue gun can close the seams. 🙂

    5. Jen says

      September 30, 2010 at 2:08 pm

      Great idea! Wish I'd have thought of it 🙂 You could always do iron on transfers to label the contents if they're completely covered, or even write on the sheet with a sharpie.

      • Karen says

        October 02, 2010 at 8:30 am

        Why didn't I think of that! Thanks Jen!

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