Compact Grocery Bag Carrier for the Purse

I'm a mom, and since I have young kids, I use plastic grocery bags for everything, including emergency dirty/wet clothes carriers and something to put in the carseat under a wet bum when the diaper that you thought would make it home doesn't.  I like to have them in my car, in the diaper bag, in my purse.  But I HATE the thought of a loose bag in any of those places.  So I made a little compact carrier out of some scrap fabric for them.  It fits 2 bags comfortably, or 3 if you squeeze them in.  Here's how!

Cut a rectangle of your fabric about 3.5"x11".  It should be about an inch longer if you intend to roll hem your opening rather than serge to finish.

Finish the short ends of the fabric, and then fold the strip in half (right sides together) and sew up the sides.

This isn't necessary, but I like the boxy end that it gives the cozy.  Open the bag up and lay it so that the seams are now in the middle of the flat piece rather than on the edges.  This will make your bottom lay into two points as shown in the next photo.

voila!

Sew a short triangle at the end of each of the points of the bag.  This gives it the boxy shape.  Don't make them big!  Mine are a little bigger than 1/2 inch tall.

Turn your cozy right-side out and add a fastener.  I use plastic snaps (because I have snap pliers and I LOVE the plastic snaps!) but you can use metal sew-on snaps or a little piece of velcro.

NOW, you have a tiny little cozy for your plastic bags!  They fit much neater in the cozy if they are folded neatly.  Here's how! Click on the picture if you need to see it bigger.

Take a plain plastic grocery bag.  I like to make sure that I pick ones without any holes in the bottom, since I use them most for wet clothes.

Grab the gusset at the bottom of the bag and the top of the handle on that side and straighten it out.

Do that on both sides and flatten the bag neatly.

Fold in half...

...and half again.

Fold the handle down.  This is the point where you should make sure that all the air is out of the bag!

Fold or roll the bag up small!  TaDa!  Put it in your bag and you're ready to go!