When everyone lends a helping hand, quick and easy sewing and fiber art projects are always fun and rewarding.
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| Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild members create tote bags for walkers and fleece blankets to support two community organizations. |
Members of the
Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild collaborated on two such projects at the March guild meeting to support local community organizations. Tote bags for walkers were made from blue jeans and lap blankets were made with soft, colorful, easy-care fleece fabrics.
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| Mary Lou shows options for walker bags. |
Guild member and Team Lead for the guild's Community Service Project, Mary Lou Scohier, researched the needs for a local seniors program (
Alexian Brothers PACE) and set out to create a pattern for low-cost, easy-to-make
tote bags that could be secured to walkers. Blue jeans, with their sturdy fabric construction and multiple pre-existing pockets seemed a most appropriate choice for the source material.
Old blue jeans in various sizes were collected and brought in by guild members. The legs of the blue jeans were cut off at the hip and the opening sewed closed to create the body of the tote bag. The bottom of the bag was boxed and handles for attaching the bag to a walker were made from the jeans legs.
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| The body of the walker totes. |
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| A tote bag attached to the walker. |
Guild members also revisited a project from a
2009 community service endeavor to create
lap blankets from colorful fleece fabric. Instructions for creating these popular two-sided throws can be found at this
September 2009 post. This is a no-sew project that is fast and fun to make.
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| Front and back fabrics are aligned with wrong sides together before cutting fringe. |
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| Fringe is tied to create a soft, cuddly lap blankets. |
In about two hours, 11 tote bags and 12 fleece blankets were close to completion. Recipients of the items are the
Alexian Brothers PACE program and the
Hatch's House of Hope program of the
Austin Hatcher Foundation for pediatric cancer.
The guild
Show and Tell included a bobbin-buster weaving and hand-knit dog sweaters.
