Sew (that was a play on words, did you get that?) why bags? You ask. Let’s just pretend you did ok? A few years ago a small town Westcountry town, let’s call it Modbury because that’s its name, banned carrier bags. The local supermarket reckoned that on an average day it gave away 1000 plastic carriers. A wildlife photographer who lived locally, launched a campaign which was enthusiastically embraced by all 43 local traders and now if you buy comestibles in Modbury, you will not be offered a plastic carrier bag. It is a plastic bag free zone. Even the local florist uses biodegradable sheets and raffia instead of cellophane & ribbon.
While most supermarkets accept bags back for re-cycling, a lot of plastic bags still end up in landfill or worse still, in hedgerows or floating in the sea. It is reported that plastic bag litter kills over 100,000 seabirds, dolphins, seals, whales and turtles every year*. Now, this really struck a chord with me and I started upcycling used fabrics into pretty re-usable market bags. Re-using fabrics keeps textiles out of landfill and is definitely a whole other blog subject.
Well, one thing leads to another as we all know and the more bag patterns I found the more I wanted to make. It has got to the stage where I mentally unpick a lady’s bag as I follow her down the street. I’m not even discreet. I hasten to add that unpicking a bag should not be confused with the ‘Artful Dodger’ style of ‘picking a (bag) or two’. ‘Bagging’ has become my obsession and it might sound a little unsavoury, but I can assure you, in this context, it really is quite harmless
*Ban the Plastic bag- A community Action Plan by Rebecca Hoskings
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