A
bag is a great item for a shoebox. Some of the children and families
have to walk long distances to collect their shoebox and may struggle
to carry the box home, especially if they cannot get all the items
back inside it.
A
bag would also be very useful for the recipient in every day life,
perhaps as a shopping bag, a school bag or somewhere to store their
belongings if they are living in an orphanage or hospital.
If
you live in the UK and would like to get involved in a communal
sewing project for your shoeboxes, why not become a Shoebox Bagette?
The
Shoebox Bagettes is the only UK-based chapter of The Green Bag Lady.
This is a great project with the aim of reducing plastic bag use by
encouraging people to carry and use fabric bags instead. Since 2008,
Teresa and her team of volunteer "Bagettes" have made over 50,000 fabric bags using donated material and given them away for
free, in exchange for a promise to use them instead of paper or
plastic.
In
our chapter, the
bags are made specifically for our shoeboxes. You can use them in
your own boxes or donate them to a packing party or your local
warehouse for use as fillers. We sew special Green Bag Lady labels
into our bags with an allocated number written on them. If the
recipients were able to, they could contact Green Bag Lady and let
them know where the bags have ended up.
If
you would like to know more, please contact us via the Facebook page or by sending a message to
craftingforshoeboxes[at]gmail[dot]com
Boy 2-4 shoebox for Operation Christmas Child UK
Girl 10-14 shoebox for Operation Christmas Child UK
Teenage girl shoebox for Rotary
Teenage boy shoebox for Rotary
Family shoebox for Rotary
Elderly shoebox for Link to Hope
Of course, you can make some bags for your boxes without being involved in a chapter. Here is a video featuring the Green Bag Lady herself showing how to make their bags, and there is a written pattern here.
For
alternative tote bag patterns and tutorials, please visit our
Pinterest board.
Happiness
is handmade
UPDATE - in June 2015, we had a giveaway at our birthday party. The prize was a pretty pink bag made by a Bagette in the USA. The winner placed it inside a shoebox and we waited patiently to find out where it ended up. You can find out where here - how exciting!
UPDATE - in June 2015, we had a giveaway at our birthday party. The prize was a pretty pink bag made by a Bagette in the USA. The winner placed it inside a shoebox and we waited patiently to find out where it ended up. You can find out where here - how exciting!
Lovely bags!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThank you for starting this page and all the links! I look forward to seeing updates in the future! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Teresa
Delete