Spoonflower Spotlight: Magnet Strip Tote Bag Wrangler
Scrap and Stash Busting Projects are DIYs that use small pieces of fabric, or small amounts of supplies you may already have on hand. For more in this series, click on the “Scrap and Stash Busting” category tag.
Like many big cities, the cities in which I live have started charging for plastic bags. Although we have plenty of reusable totes on hand, when we lived in our NYC apartment, we didn’t have a ton of storage space. The front door of our apartment seemed like a potentially great place to always have totes available when you walked out on a shopping errand, but we had so many bags that they popped off regular hooks every time anyone walked past the door. But the other unique thing about many NYC apartment doors is that they are metal, which means magnets offered a potential solution.
I know many of you don’t live somewhere with a metal front door, but I think this could also work on the side of a fridge, or the side of metal storage shelves or even attached to a metal pegboard. I don’t know if it would work on a wall painted with magnetized chalkboard paint, but it might be worth a try. One thing I will caution is that if you don’t have a little lip or shelf that can help bear some of the weight of your tote bags (as you’ll see in the photos, our front door has a box for the doorbell that helps hold the bag straps) you will need much stronger magnets — or perhaps consider making the strap double wide and using two magnets on each end.
Step 1: Gather Your Supplies
For this project you will need:
Magnets (two), roughly the size of a quarter (shape doesn’t really matter)
Scrap fabric at least 4 inches by 2 inches (I used a test swatch from my Grellow Diamonds design in Petal Signature Cotton)
Scissors
Sewing Machine
Thread
Needle for Hand Sewing
When selecting your magnets, don’t forget to test that they adhere to the surface where the strip is supposed to go without sliding down (especially if it will be on a door, open and close the door a few times to see if they move). You’ll also want to check to see if your magnets will connect to each other on both sides, or if they repel on one side and attract on the other. If your magnets repel each other in one direction, you will want to be very careful when assembling your strip to make sure the sides that attract are facing the same way within the strip.
Step 2: Measure Twice, Cut Once
Since I was using a standard Spoonflower test swatch (which measures 8 inches square), I planned on having only 8 inches total length of fabric; assuming a quarter inch seam allowance on each end, that left me about 7.5 inches for the long edge of my strip. For the width, I used one of the magnets to check that my pocket would be big enough — the magnet itself is about .75 inches in diameter, which meant a one inch square pocket should give enough room for the thickness of the magnet (note: if your magnet is thicker than mine you may need to give yourself a little more room; you can always fold the fabric over the magnet to double check). This meant the total width of the strip I needed was 2.5 inches (one inch front, one inch back, and a quarter inch seam allowance on each end).
After cutting this 2.5 inch by 8 inch strip out, I folded it in half with the “right” sides facing each other, and ironed a seam down the middle, before sewing a seam (with a 1/4 inch seam allowance) down the open long edge.
Step 3: Sewing in the Magnets
Now you have an eight inch long, 2 inch wide tube of inside out fabric. Sew one short end of the tube closed (remembering to leave the 1/4 inch seam allowance), and then turn the tube right side out. I don’t have one of those fancy tube turner tools, so I took a safety pin and pinned the closed end of the tube to a scrap edge of my fabric and it worked pretty well.
Now that your tube is right side out, slip one of the magnets inside. Make sure it slides all the way to the closed end of the tube, then carefully sew across the tube, below the magnet (about 1 inch from the end). This makes a little pocket to keep the magnet at the end of the strip. I was a little worried my magnet might stick to the sewing machine, but it worked fine.
To sew the other magnet in, you’ll need to do things in a slightly different order. Sew the horizontal seam across the outside of the tube as with the other side (making sure to leave the extra 1/4” at the open short end). Slip the second magnet inside the new short pocket, then tuck the seam allowance inward and hand sew the short end shut (as if finishing off a pillow). Use the sewing needle to tuck any stray ends of thread inside the tube.
Step 4: Put to Use!
Now you can take your finished magnet strip, stick one end to your chosen surface, tuck the tote bag handles through the strap and close:
We had our strip up for over a year before we moved, and it worked really well. I do think if we hadn’t had the doorbell box for extra support we’d need a heavier magnet, but in part that’s because we kept some standard items (like extra tote bags- you always need at least two for a grocery run) in our totes so they are a bit heavier than an empty bag. In the winter we did occasionally have issues with our heavy coats catching the tote bags with enough force to pull the strip open but that’s more the fault of our very compressed “entry” space.
I think you could use a magnet strip like this to collect anything that has straps or “stringy” pieces — I could see this working to help store cable knitting needles, jump ropes, maybe even to keep string lights organized. It’s a simple project but one with a lot of possibilities.
What would you use a magnet strip for? Let me know in the comments!