The bags

I didn't take photos of them, but boy oh boy, did I sew them. I made 66 (I think 66?) bags for a project at Child Development Resources. They were given out this week to parents and in the bags, they put activity notebooks, books, and supplies to make a lot of the activities. It was the comments surrounding the bags that were interesting. But first, how they were made.
I cut pieces of about 18" square, leftover cotton and cotton blends, decorated one side of some of them, and put them right side together, taking seams on three sides, serging the side and bottom seams for strength. Some of them were 18 x 36, so I needed only to fold them and sew the side seams. I then hemmed the top. I made handles out of the same or coordinating fabrics by cutting a 2" strip, folding it and then folding it on itself, cutting them into 10" lengths, and placing them 4" apart in the center of the top of the bag, one on each side. I reinforced the seams and voila, a bag. Simple, right?
I can't tell you how many people were impressed with them. It never dawned on me that people who don't sew would be dazzled by a simple bag. It truly was not hard to make! Those of us who sew don't see the magic that those who do not sew see. The people receiving these bags saw them as something I could sell. I know better; they're simple bags without even a boxed bottom. They saw them as something creative. I know better; they're simple bags without any special design work. I could make them in my sleep. They saw them as something special. I know better; they're just bags.
Or do I know better? Maybe they are something impressive, special, creative and I don't think about that anymore? I do know one thing - I saw them, all the bags - as something more than they were when I was making them. When I was making them, they were just one more thing to make my machine hum and give me a feeling of almost Zen-like proportions.
Maybe there is magic in that needle and thread.