In the beginning...

So, Facebook isn't enough any more. I need to spout my quotidian rantings to a wider audience.

Actually, I told folks on Facebook I'd be making a bag a week this year. To keep myself true to the goal, I need accountability. While I dislike obligations, my therapist keeps telling me I need structure, so maybe this will help that.

I use cloth shopping bags. I make them. People give them to me. I have a ton of them. I keep getting new ideas for what I can use for materials to make more of them. I have accumulated so much material that I told myself I would not take in any more this year. (Yarn, too, but that's not quite as out of hand yet.) So please do not offer me any fabric, or yarn, until at least June. I occasionally give a bag away to the clerks and baggers when I'm out shopping if they get all giddy about them, but I still have a ton of bags and a ton of ideas and a ton of fabric.

I want to make more bags, but I need an outlet for them. There's a short line of commenters on Facebook already, but not 52. Each one of them will be getting a bag, along with 42 of you. If I never get that many comments, the folks at Market Basket will be ecstatic.

So, what's in the materials stash and what's in the idea stash and what's already been done?

Materials:

a couple of old button-down shirts from my husband

a sail from my neighbor. Who has already been promised a bag in exchange for that, but there's a lot of yardage in that little boat's sail

sail scraps from a local sailmaker's workshop

jeans with holes in the knees

more quilting fabric lengths than you can shake a stick at

rope

cotton tape meant to make the seats of Shaker-style chairs

straps cut off various backpacks, bike helmets and the like

zippers, snaps, grommets

Ideas:

classic grocery bags

round-bottom bags

duffels

lunch totes

small IKEA-style bag, out of production by them but easily reproduced

stuff sacks

What's been done already:

The jeans bag, which is generally large and heavy, but draws a lot of comments and has the advantage of pockets

The shirt bag, which is lighter and more manageable in size and can be rolled up and buttoned shut

Billboard bag, which is just that. A bag made from a billboard, which is just a tarp with printing on it. These were grocery and lunch sized and are now all gone, the last few to the folks at Occupy Boston. One special one ended up as a messenger bag.

The small sail bag, which was a 5th birthday present wrapping. Dang, that sailcloth is tough stuff!

Thanks for joining me on my year of creating. If anything strikes your fancy, let me know. If you have any suggestions on what to make, do tell. You may end up being a bag tester.