Canvas bags are becoming a staple item for many people who wish to lower their plastic use and reduce their waste. They are a great way to cut back on the consumption of plastic and paper bags as if looked after well they can be used many times over a number of years.
If canvas bags are becoming a part of your daily life you may be getting bored if you have a number of plain bags filling up your cupboards. So how can you inject a bit of personality into your canvas bags? Luckily there are many different ways you can add a bit of excitement to a plain bag:
Accessories
A quick and easy way to jazz up a plain canvas bag is to add some accessories, these can be anything from buttons, to jewels or beads. Adding these types of accessories can be easily fastened to canvas bags by either stitching or acrylic glue. When attaching accessories such as this you will need to consider if this will change the method in which you will need to clean the bag.
Embroidery
Another easy way to decorate your canvas bag includes adding embroidery, all you will need for this method is a pencil, coloured thread of your choice, needle and scissors. Use the pencil to lightly sketch your design, simple line designs work well for this method and do not take too much skill or time. Ideally you should know how to do back stitch for this but any type of stitch you prefer should work. Make sure you tie off the thread at each end to avoid it coming loose. If you want to add extra protection you can use some fusible interfacing and iron it onto the inside of the bag on the stitches to protect them from getting caught.
Staps
A key feature of any canvas bag is its straps, by decorating these you can quickly give a tired plain bag a refreshed design. Depending on your level of sewing experience you may be able to change the straps completely, however if you want quick and easy ideas then buckles or ribbons can be easily attached to enhance their appearance.
Dye
Dying your canvas bag can be as easy or as creative as you like, for beginners you can easily dye the entire bag in a bucket with fabric dye (be sure to use rubber gloves to avoid the staining of your skin). Depending on how dark you want your colour to be will determine how long you leave the canvas bag in the dye for, the longer the darker. For those who want to be a bit more creative you can also choose to dip dye or tie dye, this will produce various patterns and you can even use different colour dyes to create exciting patterns and prints.
There are so many ways you can enhance the appearance of your plain canvas bags, your only limit is your own creativity! Be sure to think about how your decorations will affect the way that you care and clean your canvas bag.
