Hello Sewists!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. My husband and I spent it at the Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience! I won free tickets so we went all three days and had a blast! Yesterday we also had a bbq at our house with my husband's family and my sisters are coming over today for Easter dinner. Lots of fun with lots of people!
Lots of updates today! I just got an email from Joann's Fabric that mentioned they have free video tutorials online through Craftsy. You can sign up for free with Facebook for just an email address. I decided to see what they had and what do you know they have a tote bag and zipper pouch tutorial right on the front page! Kristin does her bags a little differently that the tutorial I posted before but they turn out the same and are just as cute. Hers even have a pocket inside! The videos are great for those that have a hard time with the written instructions from my previous posted tutorial. The whole tutorial is broken down in to multiple videos and they roll right into the next video in line. Here is the link for the first video:
Topic 1: What You'll Need
Now, the bags we want to give to patients don't have to have the pocket or the zipper pouch but if you are feeling generous and enthusiastic, go for it! I'm excited to try making a few bags this way to see how they turn out.
My friend brought over a garbage bag FULL of fabric for us to use. We spent a while pairing fabrics together and cutting them to manageable sizes. She is handing them out to ladies at her church that have volunteered to sew bags.
My mother in law also brought bags with her to the bbq yesterday bringing my total number of bags up to 21! I know there are ladies working on more of them and can't wait to see them all! Here are all the bags I have right now!
Last Sunday my family and I all went together to take one of the bags to Primary Children's Hospital here in Salt Lake. A girl I went to high school with has a 5 year old daughter that has relapsed and has leukemia again. Their family lives directly across the street from my family and they are in the same church ward. Along with the standard journal, pen, lotion and chocolate we added some toys and a sticker book. She wasn't feeling well that day from the steroid treatment she was on but we hope she can enjoy her gifts.
My parents took a second bag home to a family friend of ours who was diagnosed last month with an aggressive uterine cancer. She will actually be a patient at the radiation oncology office my mom works at (where all the bags are going). My mom also took a third bag with her to show everyone at the office what the bags will look like and everyone was so excited! She gave the third bag to a new patient and she loved it! I can hardly wait for June 1st to deliver all the bags! Also, since the office serves men and women we decide to give the men water bottles filled with gifts instead of the bags since most men I know don't want or have any use for a cute handbag.
With the monetary donations I have received I bought fabric and the rest was spent on lotion. To date we have more journals than we hoped for, enough pens and enough lotion. So all we need now are the bags and individually wrapped candy/chocolate or money to buy things with. We also have enough water bottles for the guys.
