semi o/t - morsbags.com

In a similar vein, there is a group of women in my church who gets together to make sturdy school bags for poor children in Haiti. Those who don't sew are given shopping lists of school supplies to fill the bags -- crayons, pencils, paper, etc. Thus, the children have what they need for school, and each child owns something special. (The main demonination builds, furnishes, and provides teachers for the schools.)

Thanks for sending this Morag. I'm on the holiday party committee for my guild & I've polled some of the other ladies on the committee & we're going to make kits up of the bag (fabric & pattern) and make them into table favors. We may try to sew them, but we'd need to make over 100 & I'm not sure if I can solicit that many people to help make them. Anyway, I was concerned that this may strike some people as too political, but so far everyone is on board with the idea.

Pauline Northern California

great idea, but the website is pretty broken at the moment, I went to the map to see if there was anyone near me and though the map was all visible it was also displaying that message you get on google maps when something isn't available at that level of detail, so you had two things to decipher. Then when I clicked on each one the links are incorrect, so even though one label was telling me the name the box with the details would be a completely different one and I could get the correct details by scrolling through the list and clicking on the right one! I make a lot of simple bags already though I've never given one away, so it would be quite nice to be part of a group that was intentionally doing that, there were some within 50 miles of me, but not right here.

Cheers Anne

I don't see why that would be political at all. I think that sounds like a really neat idea.

Donna in SW Idaho

There is a great bag pattern available in the free patterns section of the Lazy Girl Designs website. Joan is have a "Make 2 give 2" challenge for the month of Sept. (yes we started early ) The goal is 500 bags made and given, with copies of the pattern to non- or "not lately" sewists. One yard of fabric makes a very good sized, lined, shopping bag. And smaller bags can be made with smaller amounts of fabric. Lots of options and very fast to make.

Pati, > great idea, but the website is pretty broken at the moment, I went to

Took me longer to figure out which fabric from my stash I wanted to use than it did to make the "With Love Totes" that Pati is referring to from the Lazy Girl Designs website!

Donna in SW Idaho