Have you ever had one of those days?  I’ve had one of those months, my vacuum bit the big one when the plastic connection where the hose and the body of the machine meet up cracked and there was no fixing it.  I can’t afford a new vacuum at the moment though, luckily my mother said my grandmother has a spare because she was gifted a lighter one (my Grandma is no spring chicken and her new lighter vacuum is great for her) so I’m to be given the old one since mine is now happily doing it’s thing with the big carpet in the sky.

Until my mother gets back from Michigan with my new vacuum I had to borrow one from my (in all but on paper) mother in law who doesn’t use it anyway because it’s so ancient that the sound bothers my wonderful sis who lives with her ( she has flare ups with her lupus because of the sound), they just use one of the sweeper ones, not as great but it works for most tasks.

Anyway so I’ve got this used vacuum that I’ve already had to replace the belt on by guesstimate because really, it’s old, and now I need a bag because the one in it was not only full but it tore to boot so there is no emptying and reusing it :::sigh:::  What’s a girl to do?

I made one darn it!  It’s not pretty…well, ok, it is kinda pretty because of the fabric I used which was leftover from a project, and I might have put in some velcro at the top so that I could reuse it if I had any on hand, but it works and that is what matters huh?

Ok, it's kinda pretty since it's pink, lol.

To make this wonderful useful, and in your case washable therefore reuseable in a jiffy in desperate need of a vacuum bag now bag you will need to either

A. Take the measurements from your regular disposable bag or

B. Take a guesstimate from your vacuum.

Supplies:

• fabric keep in mind you’re going to want something with a tight weave (no holes)
• Scissors
• 2 Elastic Bands (like for hair) that will fit snugly over your attachment area
• Coffee Can Lid (you can cut a larger one down to size if you need to)
• Marker, pencil, pen, whatever
• Way to sew it all together

Directions

Take a coffee can lid and trace the opening hole where the vacuum attached to the bag. I had to stack some books under mine because the vacuum hose thing doesn't come out. If yours doesn't even move you'll have to get creative Don't forget to cut out the hole!

To get started you're going to go ahead and take measurements of how big this needs to be and cut your fabric appropriately.

Why do we need the coffee can lid? So that the area where the bag attached is stable and doesn't blow off when you power up the vacuum! Now you're going to cut 2 extra squares of fabric that are the width of the bag and big enough for the lid so that you'll have a couple of inchs around the lid area for sewing.

Take your two smaller pieces of fabric and mark each with a circle in the middle. I used the pre cut coffee can lid to do this. Sew hair elastic around hole with zig zag stitch. When done cut out inside of hole being careful not to cut any of your new stitches. Do this with each smaller piece.

Sew up 3 sides of smaller piece then tuck prepared lid in and sew up last edge.

Then sew round the lid (but not the plastic itself) so it's secure.

Almost done now! Sew the smaller piece to one of the main body pieces at the end. Don't mind if it's now too long for your vacuum it will still work and I'm really not going back to do this all over again since I've already vacuumed, lol. If you don't want it to be too long then cut off the extra. Then all you have to do is sew round all the edges and you're done!

Attached to the machine

Now if I’d had any hook and loop tape (velcro) then I might have put some along the top instead of sewing it closed, but it is what it is and it works and that’s the important thing because Gus is shedding getting his summer coat and the other vacuum won’t be here at least another week!