Watching Burnaby students strike school for climate action - coupled with seeing plastic debris washed ashore and dying coral reefs on a recent vacation – Burnaby’s Joanne Morneau felt she had to do something.
“Sewing has always been a passion for me, it’s my creative outlet,” she said. “I love working with colours, fabrics, patterns and textures. Coming up with a sewing project that could help eliminate the need for plastic bags seemed like a good place to start.”
Morneau drafted an easy-to-make shopping bag pattern and invited family, friends and neighbours to join in. Long-time neighbours Linda Andrecheck and JoAnn Gillies quickly joined in and donated an array of cotton fabrics and thread. Textile scraps were also donated from local businesses.
The bags will be donated to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank in the hope the food bank will fill the donated fabric shopping bags with groceries and people that might not own a quality made reusable fabric shopping bag will be able to break free from plastic bags.
“We have to act now,” says Morneau. “Our world is flooded with plastics. Whales are drowning in our plastic garbage. If your house was flooding, you would turn off the tap first and then grab a mop, so we have to stop making plastics and stop buying things packaged in plastic. Things like single-use plastic beverage containers, plastic cutlery and plastic bags should be banned. Imagine the difference we could make if we all bought things that are reusable and/or rechargeable and made from renewable resources.”
Everyone is welcome to sew or donate fabric and thread. Participants sew at home and bring their finished fabric shopping bags to a meet up. A bag count and a group photo are taken and then it’s time to chit chat. The next meet up will be on June 22 at 4 p.m. on the lawn behind the Burnaby Art Gallery, overlooking Century Gardens at Deer Lake.
For more information and sewing pattern, contact [email protected].
