Saving our planet: making a pouch for produce bags

I have found it useful to have a small pouch in which to carry the produce bags, to keep them contained and clean.

I cut a piece, 31cm x 17cm, in fabric that matched the casings of the produce bags, and then hemmed both ends of the short sides (folding the fabric over 1 cm twice).

Then I marked the centres of each short end with a pin ....

and placed two sides of a snap separately  on each end (checking to see that it will join together when overlapping on the right side of the fabric). I used a tool that I have not been happy with (it requires a lot of force and too much force tends to distort the hole for the top of the snap to go into, making it impossible to close). I have since ordered another tool and snaps from Snaps Australia, as I believe these will be easier to use, and these can be purchased on line from:

https://www.snapsaustralia.com.au/

Next I closed the snap and turned the pouch inside out, lined up the sides so that the snap was in the middle of the pouch and sewed seams on both sides, over locking them as well for neatness.

Finally, I opened the snap and turned the pouch back to the right side.

I rolled the produce bags up and found that 3 will fit nicely into the pouch.

 Remember: If you don't fear failure, it frees you up. (Anon)

Saving our planet: making produce bags

On my quest to reduce single use plastic, I next designed some produce bags to replace the single use plastic bags in the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket.

I used a fairly sheer chiffon, which is difficult to cut and sew, so try to seek the stiffest fabric of this type possible.

For a basic bag I cut a piece of chiffon 82 cm long and 35 cm wide.

Fold in half along the long sides and begin to make a french seam by sewing the side seams together.

Then turn the bag inside out and sew the side seams again, this time enclosing the raw edges in the new seams. Turn inside out again so that the french seam is on the inside of the bag.

Measure across the top of the bag (mine was now about 30 cm wide).

From patterned cotton fabric cut 2 pieces 5 cm wide and the length of the top of the bag plus 2 cm (i.e. 32 cm for mine). Fold each end over 1 cm and iron down, then fold the casing in half and iron again (enclosing the folded ends).

Pin the casings to the top of the bag (right sides together), with the ends of each matching up with the side seams.

Sew these right around the top and then neaten with an over-locker or zig-zag stitch.

Fold the casing up (don't iron as it may melt the chiffon -- just finger press).

Cut two pieces of cord that are longer than the entire top of the bag (allowing enough length to tie them together at the edge of the bag). So, for my bag I cut two lengths of cord 80 cm long.

Thread each length of cord through both casings (each one will begin on a different seam edge) and tie each of the ends together with a knot. This makes it easier to pull up the cords, pulling at both sides simultaneously.

Smaller bags can be made from any left-over fabric, and used when only one or two items of food are purchased. And, of course, larger bags can be sewn as well. These are all light-weight and should allow produce to still be scanned at the checkout. I made a small pouch to carry them in and will write a post on this in the future.

Remember: Anxiety and defensiveness closes the mind to new learning and narrows perspective, whereas openness widens perspectives and allows new connections and insights.

Being re-traumatised

Last week I found myself unexpectedly re-traumatised back to childhood issues, by an encounter that triggered reactions. At first I thought I was OK, but then strong feelings, reactions and thoughts told me that the incident had definitely re-traumatised me. I think that quite often re-traumatisation does creep up on people, as we automatically go into protection/ defence and/or detachment mode to get through the trigger.

These are the things that I have found helpful in beginning to recover:

Give yourself time

I find that reminding myself that it often takes 2 weeks for trauma reactions to ease, helps. The most intense reactions will be in the first week, and I know that they will gradually become less dominant in my life as the days pass. It also is a reminder that I am not going crazy.

Externalise the reactions

It is unhelpful to let thoughts and feelings keep swirling in our heads, as we are allowing ourselves to be easily sucked into whirlpool thoughts. I needed to unburden to a supportive person, but could have used offload writing to get them out of my head, so that I could then process them.

An entry on whirlpool thoughts can be found here:
http://reflectionsofaruralsocialworker.blogspot.com/2015/04/whirlpool-thinking.html

And on offload writing here:
http://reflectionsofaruralsocialworker.blogspot.com/2015/08/offload-writing.html

Do something creative and/or reaffirming

I once listened to an episode of "Conversations" with Richard Fidler, where the lady being interviewed was talking about her experiences with depression, and how she cooked her way out of it. She had not engaged in counselling or drug therapy and this gave me pause for thought.

During the last week I have found that continuing to sew Christmas gifts, process produce from the garden (that I have grown) and engage in creative cooking, have all given me moments of believing in myself again and these have begun to take over from the outbursts of reactions. I think that is is very important to re-find our true selves after being re-traumatised, as trauma turns us into people we are really not, behaving in ways that are not usual for us.

Give to others

This is an excellent way of re-focusing our thoughts and re-connecting with living after being re-traumatised. I like the ideas about 24 days of random acts of kindness in the lead up to Christmas and, although this has not been possible for me this year, I have been more conscious of reaching out to others with a supportive card and note, helping with toys for needy children and engaging in projects that give to others. 

Remember: You have the right to be less than perfect. God made us human, so we're allowed to be human. ("Touched by an Angel" TV Series)