OMG May Finish

I set a #onemonthlygoal of completing 6 grain-bag totes and I finished 10 of them! All 10 were delivered last night and will soon be available for purchase at Great North Aleworks. Linking this post up with One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.

3 of the 10 completed tote bags

OMG May

Materials for grain bag totes

I missed last month totally for One Monthly Goal, but am setting a #onemonthlygoal for May. 
I want to complete at least 6 grain-bag totes. I have handles all prepped for 10 bags and I have at least a few grain bags disassembled and ready to turn into tote bags. More than 6 would be great, but given what a wash-out April was I don't want to aim too high.

Saturday Snapshot

Last week my husband and I, along with several friends, attended the American Homebrewers Association Conference (now called HomeBrew Con). My recycled grain bag totes were great for carrying our stuff (and exhibit hall goodies) around Baltimore and the conference. Several people asked about the totes, which was cool, and some asked how to make them. I explained the basics and a tutorial may turn up on this blog one of these days. 

Photo by Lisa North, June 2016

We had a bunch of beer that we wanted to take into the Grand Banquet (yes, they serve beer there, but this is a homebrew conference so bringing your own beer is definitely a thing). The grain bag totes held up beautifully to zip-top bags filled with ice and about 16 cans of beer (in each bag). Grain bags are tough and the double stitching and handle attachment came through this unplanned test with flying colors. When one of the zip-top bags sprung a leak it proved  my theory that the tote bags aren't waterproof, but they dried super fast and suffered no ill-effects from the soaking.
Linking up with Saturday Snapshot at West Metro Mommy.

Experiments with Grain Bags

I'm lucky enough to have friends who are professional brewers. This means I not only have access to great beer, I also have access to lots of empty grain bags. Recently I have been playing around with ideas for using these to create stuff. Grain (aka malted barley) used to make beer comes in 50lb. bags which are typically made of a woven plastic-y material and often have cool graphics printed on them. A commercial brewery empties a lot of these each time they make a batch of beer, so finding a way to use them seemed like a fun, green project.

I came up with a design for a small bag to carry growlers in.

I also figured out how to use an entire grain bag (of the kind that shreds when you cut it) to make a tote bag. (I used strips cut from a less temperamental bag to make the handles.)