My DIY plastic bags holder

While it is absolutely inedible, this candied felt bag or box (however you see it) is an integral part of my aim to keep my kitchen tidier.

I draw my inspiration from those plastic plastic bag holders by Ikea, which has many holes for you to draw out plastic bags. But first, there's not a single Ikea in the entire New Zealand (whose presence would otherwise drive the local furniture industry out of business). Second, my kitchen cabinet is not big enough for its tall holder anyway.

Stiff felt is the chosen material as I like it. Also, it holds the shape, yet is more resistant to water than paper. The shocking pink colour was chosen by Spotlight, as that's the only colour available. I combined it with my leftover black and fuchsia pink felt from an earlier project to make cup coasters, so that the final colour combination is less shocking.

On the same trip to Spotlight, I have bought a cheap wine red 6 ply cotton thread, intending to use it to sew the felt pieces together. And a piece of off-white thick textile from the clearance bin, wanting to use it as a table cloth for food photography. As I was drawing the threads out of the textile to create a fray effect on both ends, I collected enough thread to sew my felt box together! Even more cheapo (whole project costing less than S$5, with leftover materials for next project).

So, a good part of Sunday afternoon was spent sewing the felt pieces together using box stitches. The size of the box is partly determined by the size of the felt, which I had halved to form each face. A strip connects the top face of the box to better hold the shape of the box together. Plastic bags are loaded from the top. A hole is cut through one of the face of the box, so you could draw plastic bags out, like tissue paper. This is the part where you can be creative. Rémi rejected my suggestion of cutting a heart shape out of the hole. So the next easiest design I could think of is making a sweetie pie looking flower.

I even contemplated hanging the box from the ceiling. But well...