Reusable shopping totes made from Amy Butler fabric

It all started with an email. I love Amy Butler fabrics and noticed on their website that they support charities in their local area.

I emailed them and asked if they'd be willing to donate fabric or provide it at a discount for this project. A week later I received an email saying they'd donate home decor fabric from her August Fields line.

I was thrilled that they were willing to help but blown away when I got the package and it had 18 yards of fabric!

The woman at Amy Butler's company suggested using a reusable shopping bag pattern from Green Bag Lady, a woman who provides homemade shopping totes for free to people who promise to use it instead of plastic bags.

I made a sample bag before the project night so that we'd know what we were doing. I used Amy Butler fabric in my personal stash. I made it just like the pattern but we decided to make the straps wider and longer on the gift bags.

We still have 6 bags that need straps. We'll do those during the next project night.

Our goal was to make 35 bags but we've sewn 43 bags so we'll fill those and distribute the last 8 to another hospital in Utah.