Boomerang bag working bee a hit for plastic free July
Friday, 13 July 2018
Nelson's branch of boomerang bag seamstresses participated in a national working bee, knocking out nearly 40 new bags.
The event, held last week, was initiated by the Wellington branch of the organisation with the hope of sewing 1000 reusable bags in just one day to celebrate plastic-free July.
With 76 branches nationwide, the target was about 13 to 14 bags per group.
Nelson boomerang bag organiser Lani Bee hosted a workshop at the Tahunanui Community Centre, where she and a team of 25 to 30 volunteers sewed 39 bags in total.
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'About half the people who showed up had sewed bags before, and half of them just heard about the event and got involved,' she Bee said.
The final count was still being tallied, but as of Monday there were more than 1300 bags made across the country.
Weekly sewing workshops are held every Tuesday, which are regularly attended by up to 12 people.
Bee said the previous Tuesday was the first time no one had come, but she suspected many people who normally attended were saving their sewing for the workshop.
'The whole thing, getting the bags made is so much fun,' Bee said.
'Getting together and sewing together is a great way to meet new people, to work on this common goal and to create awareness as well.'
The bags are all made from donated fabrics, usually the items op-shops can't sell because of wear and tear.
'They can't sell a lot of the manchester because of holes or stains, or the sheets are really warn through. But we can use a lot of that fabric,' Bee said.
'There's so many fantastic elements to it. The fabrics would have gone to the landfill, and we save the op-shops money because they have to pay to dump them, and we teach some basic life skills to people who come along.'
About 14 shops around Nelson are involved in the boomerang bag programme.