How to Turn an Empty Dog Food Bag into a Tote

By Karen P., CANIDAE Customer

Editor's Note: CANIDAE recently posted the photo for these cool repurposed dog food bags on their Facebook page. Many people asked for instructions on how to make them, so we asked Karen to share that here on the blog.


Supplies:

• CANIDAE dog food bag (dimensions are from a 30 lb bag)
• Duct tape
• Clear packing tape
• Scissors
• Tissue or newspaper (for making a template)
• Permanent marker

Instructions:   

1. Cut dog food bag open, lay it flat, and wipe the inside with a damp cloth. See the image at left to know where to cut. (Click here for a larger version.)

2. Using tissue or newspaper, measure and cut out a template, much like making a pattern for a dress. You're basically making a rectangle, but with notched-out corners. Your rectangle should be 19 1/2" wide, by 17 1/2" tall. Then, notch out a 3" by 3" corner on the bottom left and bottom right, like in the drawing.

3. Place your new template over the clean food bag. You need to make two identical cut-outs with your template. One will become the front of your repurposed bag, the other the back. Draw lines at edge of template with your marker. Then move the template and trace the second cut-out.

4. Use your scissors to cut the bag to match the templates you traced. You should have identically sized pieces after cutting.

5. Lay out both front and back pieces label side down.

6. Overlap the two 3 inch sections that will make up the bottom of the bag.

7. Duct tape the inside seam together, turn over, then use the clear tape over the seam on the outside.

8. Start folding the bag up using the same overlapping idea, using the duct tape on the inside seams and the clear tape on the outside seams.

9. Once the bag is basically together, make a 2 inch cut at the top of each of the 4 corners, fold the edges in and secure down with the duct tape (the duct tape will cover the unevenness of the inside edge).

10. With the remaining “scraps” cut  two strips 20 inches long and 1/2 inch wide.

11. Lay out a piece of clear tape, sticky side up and center the 1/2 inch strip.  Fold the tape over the strip in a tri-fold fashion (I used several short pieces of the clear tape). Repeat with the second strip.  These will become your handles.

12. Attach the handles approximately 3 inches in from each side as shown. That's it. Now you have a great bag to take to the dog park!