Boomerang Bags New Forest

Wecome to the New Forest, this includes some towns like Lymington, Ringwood, Hythe and Waterside Area, but also lots of villages. In the summer large numbers of people come here for their holiday because the of woodland and coastal areas.

A few of us started making bags from waste fabric and giving them away to friends. We were then given an old hand driven, Singer sewing machine from a friend to use. It was great. We decided to up our game and have a stall at the local garden fair. The hand driven machine came with us! What a great talking point and we let everyone who bought a bag use it to sew their own label on.

In 2020 lockdown occured. We couldn’t meet up, we couldn’t go out. However, between us, as individuals we carried on cutting and sewing and found our skills came in useful. We made drawstring bags for the NHS workers, started making face coverings for ourselves, our families and our communities. We also gave our bags to the local food bank and the xero waste shop, for their food deliveries.

2021 has brought new challenge. The local food bank helps 107 local families in need, but were struggling with the amount of plastic bags they were using. That’s 1000 bags a week (7-10 bags per family). So we have teamed up with some local Women’s insitutes, Rotary clubs and other organisations and now on a mission to make 1000 fabric bags from waste….