California Bag Lady!

My best friend found your site and got one of your bags.

I want you to know that I was given a bunch of fabric scraps and fashioned my own "Scrap Bags!" I have been taking orders for them and make them as fast as I possibly can. In fact, people have been custom ordering fabric bags. I have a Brother embroidery machine and I do a design on them with their name: i.e.. Nancy's Shopping Bag.

And, by the way, I have a wonderful 36 year old Elna sewing machine as well so I can stitch up bags while the other machine is embroidering...it sews as well.

My bags are slightly different in construction: I fold the edges of the strap fabric to the center, then in half wit the raw edges inside. I stitch down each side of the straps. I cut rectangles and then sew 3 inches across each corner of the outside fabric. When I put the lining in I simply stitch straight across the bottom and stuff it inside not worrying about making the "boxed corner" on the lining. Real easy and people LOVE them!

Nancy Springston in San Diego, California

South Carolina/Italy bag!

Teresa

I really enjoy your bag and it was great in Italy. Attached is a jpeg of me with the bag in Milan.

Best, Jane
http://www.janenodine.com/

New!!!! Footage of Green Bag Lady

FINALLY! I have this up for you all to see. This is footage from way back in JUNE of the Green Bag Lady event at Ecology. I had only given away about 600 bags way back then. We are over 1900 now!

Watch the video.

Enjoy! Teresa

Brooklyn, New York Green Bag Ladies!

Hi Teresa,
I wanted to let you know that I hosted Brooklyn's first green bag making day this past Sunday as part of Church of Craft. Here are some of photos of my hard workers, Abbie, Elisa, Sarah, and Kristy. We cut out over 40 bags and sewed 18. I posted it on my blog too. Our next step is to organize a give away day where we give bags out locally. It has been a lot of fun.
Hope you are well.
Annika


Annika--This is FABULOUS! I hope others are following suit and will send me photos too! All of you out there, send me photos of bag making, I would love to post them! Teresa

A Greener You. . .

Ok, so you have the fabric bag thing down. You use them all the time. You feel good about it. Now what? What else can you do to be green? Here are some suggestions:

•Be aware of your energy usage. The documentary film, "Kilowatt Ours" (made right here in Tennessee!) is WELL worth buying or viewing if there is an event near you. It has great tips for saving energy and some very scary facts about why you should do so. Saving Energy=Saving Money! www.kilowattours.org

•I know many of you do a great job recycling, right? I'm going to assume you are all nodding your heads. Do you feel bad about throwing away those plastic caps/lids when you recycle a bottle? No more, you can save them and bring them to an Aveda store for recycling. This is true, I asked at the store. Click here for a store near you! I have an oatmeal container on my kitchen counter just for collecting caps/lids.

•STOP buying bottled water. Please, stop. Read this and you will understand why. Get a good refillable bottle. Please.

•Try to buy as many things at the store as you can in glass and metal. These are both infinitely recyclable. Also, you reduce how much plastic you use. Please read "Plastic Ocean" to see why we all need to reduce our dependence on plastic.

That is all I will bombard you with right now. Get greener and do it today! It will make you happy. :) Teresa

Smoky Mountain Bag Lady

Teresa,

My Elna arrived on Friday--what a dream machine! It sews so fast, I almost couldn't keep up with it. Attached is a picture of my machine, with a newly finished baby quilt for Newborns in Need.


Best,
Sara
Smokey Mountain Bag Lady

Over 1900!

AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC NE NH NJ NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV = 45 states

plus 20 countries/territories:

West Leederville, AUSTRALIA
Summer Hill, AUSTRALIA
Dombirn, AUSTRIA
Rixensart, BELGIUM
Petropolis R.J., BRAZIL
Fortaleza, BRAZIL
Ontario, CANADA
Vancouver, CANADA
Alberta, CANADA
Calgary, CANADA
Abbotsford BC, CANADA
San José, COSTA RICA
Jaco, COSTA RICA
Havana, CUBA
Copenhagen, DENMARK
Quito, ECUADOR
Freiburg, GERMANY
Sicily, ITALY
Camp Zama Army Base, JAPAN
Monrobia, LIBERIA
Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Pietermaritzburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Barcelona, SPAIN
Upsala, SWEDEN
Taipei County, TAIWAN
Kampala, UGANDA
Christiansted, VIRGIN ISLANDS

A nice little post on another blog. . .

Fabric shopping bags! Hooray! I recently met a wonderful woman who works with the "Green Bag Lady" in Nashville. The Green Bag Lady is Teresa, an artist who began sewing fabric shopping bags and giving them away to anyone who requested them. Her project has now expanded so much that she has a small network of women who sew bags with her, and she's had so many requests that she can't keep up with demand. They use mostly donated (and consequently mostly vintage) fabric. My friend Anna made these two bags for me, and I love them so much more than the plain beige canvas bags you can buy in the grocery store.

To read the entire post go to Julie's Blog.

Thanks for the post on your site Julie! Teresa

OVER 1800!

AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC NE NH NJ NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV = 45 states

plus 19 countries/territories:

West Leederville, AUSTRALIA
Summer Hill, AUSTRALIA
Dombirn, AUSTRIA
Rixensart, BELGIUM
Petropolis R.J., BRAZIL
Fortaleza, BRAZIL
Ontario, CANADA
Vancouver, CANADA
Abbotsford BC, CANADA
San José, COSTA RICA
Jaco, COSTA RICA
Havana, CUBA
Copenhagen, DENMARK
Quito, ECUADOR
Freiburg, GERMANY
Sicily, ITALY
Camp Zama Army Base, JAPAN
Monrobia, LIBERIA
Pietermaritzburg, SOUTH AFRICA
Barcelona, SPAIN
Upsala, SWEDEN
Taipei County, TAIWAN
Kampala, UGANDA
Christiansted, VIRGIN ISLANDS

Australia Bag!

Thank you so much for my green bag! Knowing that you are so backlogged with requests I wasn't sure that you'd be able to send mine all the way to Australia so I was thrilled when my Green Bag Lady package arrived. I took it shopping that very day as you can see in the photo. I promise I'll be spreading the word about eco friendly bags.

Mindy Graham (West Leederville, Western Australia).