Hand Towel Bag Dispenser

I'm a big fan of reusable grocery bags.  They make my life easier.  But I some times forget to bring them into the store with me, so we do end up with plastic bags.  I use them as liners for our trashcans and in lieu of fancy diaper pails.  So I need a place to keep them organized and at hand.  For about $3, I turned an ordinary dish towel into a nice little bag for my bags.

This one hangs in our garage, right outside the kitchen door and I made a second one for in the baby's room.

To make one, all you need is:
A dish towel

Skinny elastic

Small safety pin

Hot glue gun and glue

Cut two lengths of elastic just a few inches longer than the ends of the towel.  Take one of the pieces of elastic and the safety pin and pin it to one end.

Using the tube created by the hem at the end of the towel (it should be open all the way across, so look for that when picking out your towel) thread the elastic through, safety pin end first, using the pin to pull it through.  Make sure you hold on to the other end while you do this.

Grab the two ends of the elastic and pull tight

Until it's a tight as you can get, forming a circle.

Like so.  Tie the ends of the elastic together in a knot and trim off extra.

Repeat on the other end.  Keep the opening at this end a little looser when you tie it closed.

Your towel should look something like this now.  Flip it inside out and line up the outside edges.

Using your hot glue gun, draw a line of glue, a little bit at a time, down one of the edges and glue the other to it.

Turn it right-side out

It should look something like this-a tube with holes at either end.

I added a small loop of ribbon to the loose end to hang it with.  Just tie a piece of ribbon or twine or whatever you choose around the elastic, knotting it at one end.

Hang and fill with bags from the top (where your hanging loop is)

Pull the bags out through the opening at the bottom.  And there you have it-a cheap, easy and quick way to store those plastic bags you've got laying around.