I have a few of those reusable market totes, the ones that look really small but fold out into a spacious conveyance that’s kind to the environment.
Most of mine were promotional giveaways to encourage better consumer practices.
Unfortunately, I rarely remember to take them along when I go to the store for a loaf of bread and a carton of milk. I probably should stick a couple in my trunk; at least I’d be getting these fabric totes closer to their target.
Some communities across the nation, and in our state, want to ban plastic grocery sacks, fearful of the ever-growing, non-biodegradable piles in our landfills.
One day soon, these bags — and paper bags for that matter — may no longer be an option at the store. We’ll be forced to supply our own satchels, or buy one from the rack at the end of the check-out stand.
But one shopper who isn’t afraid to say “plastic please” when she hears that familiar refrain, “Would you like paper or plastic today, ma’am?” is no slouch in the sustainability department.
Dawn Farrier of Buellton, Calif., promotes recycling, repurposing and reusing as part of her socially conscious philosophy.
Her catchphrase is: “Go with what you know and use what you’ve got.”
When she’s shopping for Sunday supper, Farrier also is cooking up ingenious ways to turn those plastic sacks, paper bags and even coffee and frozen pasta packages into clever projects that she calls “Eco Chic.”
From fun and funky to knock-your-socks-off designs, she creates cards, stationery, table runners, place mats, purses, evening bags, ponchos and even holiday decorations.
“Going green is the acceptable thing to do,” Farrier says.
She and her husband, Patrick, own The Creation Station Fabric & Quilt Shop, an eclectic California store that’s known for its crazy ambience.
As a former event planner, Dawn Farrier says she thrives on “over-the-top” promotions. Take for example her atomic red hair.
Her saucy looks and witty words magnetized a crowd last fall as she demonstrated “Sustainable Sensations” at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.
With garbage bags as her medium, Farrier’s goal is to show others how to make “tacky-tastique” designs.
Here are a couple of Farrier’s green suggestions.
1. Plastic grocery sacks: Purses, pouches and evening bags can be fashioned from laminated plastic fabric, made by fusing together several plastic grocery bags with an iron.
(Do this in a well-ventilated area, she warns, as heating plastic will release toxic fumes).
Cutting off the handles and bottom seam, Farrier stacks three bags at once between two layers of parchment paper, uses a rayon setting on the iron and heats the plastic until it begins to shrink and fuse together.
“No need to worry about the raw edges” on these alternative fabrics, she says.
Sometimes she experiments with colored bags, cutting them into shapes and using them as appliqués.
Permanent markers also can color and personalize the projects.
She recommends searching the Internet for tutorials on plastic laminating methods.
“The possibilities are as endless as the bags themselves,” Farrier says.
2. Brown paper bags: Cards, stationery, rustic table runners and place mats can be fashioned from brown paper bags.
For a table runner, Farrier weaves brown paper strips “the good old-fashioned way like in kindergarten” but pumps the process up a notch.
Paper is weaved with colorful fabric lengths and both are cut with decorative edges, then topstitched with threads or brushed with paint.
“You can crumple and crease the paper for visual interest and texture,” she says.
On an oval place mat, Farrier captured the imprint of a leaf with cheap eye shadow applied by a large blush makeup brush, even giving the brown paper a bit of sparkle.
“Then I dusted it lightly a couple of times with super-fine aerosol hairspray.”
Finally, she embellished the oval edge with long running stitches of raffia.
What playful ideas.
The science of ecology may be serious business, but to coin a phrase from singer Cyndi Lauper, sometimes girls just want to have fun.
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