Our Next Green Step

-
My sister lives in San Francisco.
They live very green in SF.
Thanks to her promptings I'm getting my act in gear and becoming more and more green in my actions.
I've got the reusable shopping bags down pat.
99% of the time.
Sort of.
Okay maybe only 89%. . .
 
but my stockpile of plastic bags has dropped by 90%!
Next I made myself produce bags along with all the ones I made for everyone else. . .
but I'm still working on getting them out the door.
I'll get it! I know I will!
In the meantime I want to work on the outrageous number of zipped plastic baggies that are used in our household!
There are 40 weeks of school and we use on average between 2 to 8 baggies a day, five days a week.  That is somewhere between 400 and 1600 baggies a school year just for lunches!  
In an attempt to cut out this massive waste I am on the hunt.
At the beginning of the school year I purchased these reusable containers for the girls to take a sandwich and snacks for lunch.
I have two teenage, growing girls (read: they eat a lot for being such skinny little things) and although the containers fit a sandwich nicely the snack side was too small for them and they were soon back to baggies.
I have seen several reusable sandwich baggies that use a Velcro closures on the market but they are all out of my price range because I figure I need at least four per child just in case.
Thanks to a new book we got into work called
Lunchbags
I have found some easy patterns to try out:
These are my first attempts.
They have a plastic coated fabric inside that I picked up from Ikea and a cotton outside from my stash. They will wash very easily.
The photo in the book shows the baggy closing straight at the top but the instructions tell you to put it together with a flap so I made one of each. I only had enough Velcro in the house to make this one set so I will make more once I purchase more Velcro.  
One of the girls took her lunch in these two today and was very pleased with them.  Her friends thought they were awesome.
They aren't meant to be leak proof so we won't be packing pudding, sliced oranges or juicy salads in them but they will work great for crackers, sandwiches and cookies.

Comments

Jane Babcock said…
Great idea. They look good.
January 22, 2011 at 5:50 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gelli Plate Tutorial with Leaves

-
Image
Here's the Gelli Plate Tutorial you asked for! My Gelli plate has been well used and well loved. 1. Place Gelli Plate on a flat, covered working surface, and place small dots of paint onto the plate.  My demo photos are with me using acrylics and paper but it works exactly the same with fabric paint and fabric.  I like using Jacquard Textile paint when I make fabric prints. 2. Use a brayer to spread the paint evenly across the plate. 3.  I used the leaves as a resist for the first print. 4. Place the paper/fabric on top of the printing plate and smooth it out nicely to get an even print. 5.  Carefully lift up the paper/fabric. Found a photo from when I printed the fabric - see same process. This is a first print. 5.  I know that MONOprinting means ONE print but seriously, when you remove the leaves from the plate there are these beautifully textured leaves left on the plate just dying to be printed.  I couldn't ignore them!  So this is wher
Read more

Quilt National

-
Image
My husband and I took a red-eye flight to Columbus, Ohio, and then drove the one hour to Athens, Ohio, to attend the opening of the Quilt National quilt show where my piece, Wild Flowers was being shown. Made a stop at Tim Horton's, a Canadian chain for some delicious breakfast sandwiches and donut holes. We went to the Kennedy Art Museum, on the Ohio University campus. This is the side of the building. Photo of the front of the building from the cleveland.com website. The building was designed in the 1860s by Cleveland architect Levi Scofield, and was originally part of the Athen's Lunatic Asylum. It opened in 1996 as the Kennedy Museum of Art. There were some lovely prints, paintings and exhibits. It didn't take long to tour, which was good for my knees. I was glad to be able to see this Elizabeth Catlett print. I admire her work. I've seen some of her her other prints in person, and was anxious to also see this one. Friday evening, the Quilt National show opened, and
Read more

Autumn is for the Birds

-
Image
I was thrilled when my friend Jamie Fingal ask me to create something using her new fabric line, Autumn is for the Birds, from Hoffman Fabrics. I decided to use my favorite method of creating: free form piecing.  When I create a quilt with this method I rarely plan anything out, other than perhaps a general size and a few elements.  The problem with this method is that I often have to rearrange as I go.  And sometimes I need to unpick - a LOT.  I took a few photos as I went to help me get an idea of where things were going and then based upon those photos I added or changed.  I put the photos together in a short power point so that you could see a little bit of my process.  I apologize for the dark photos as my design wall is in a dark hallway but I think it still gives you a good idea of how things went. The final quilt is approximately 30"x 37". I love the focus fabrics!  There are a lot of textures in all of the fabrics.  Honestly, I could have quilted
Read more