No more plastic!

Cushion bags made with fabric I bought in India

Fringed napkins become a cushion bag

This week's charity sale bargains, details below

I want the shop to be a plastic-free zone.

Since Handmade Happiness opened, nearly 7 years ago now, I have always made small bags and carrier bags from old magazines customers kindly give me. But the cushions are too big for my bags so I have had to buy 'bags for life' from Marks and Spencer just for the cushions.

But recently I've had the sewing machine out and I've made the three bags above especially for the cushions. Now I have no reason to buy plastic...

except that I usually wrap pottery and paintings in bubble wrap. Instead, I've been using thick paper that a customer gave me from their Amazon purchases but it's not quite as protective as bubble wrap...

I had a lovely conversation with a lady who lives next door to a sheep farm and she wondered if felt made from the fleeces would be a good wrapping material for pottery.  Soft felt sheets would be ideal. And, as these coincidences happen, another lady on Saturday asked if I would like some felt sheets she has that an organic veg supplier from Devon uses to protect fruit and veg. Yes please!

There is a new business for someone - to provide biodegradable packaging to  shops and businesses.

I am also thinking of ideas to look at non-recyclable rubbish creatively. Can we make something beautiful and useful out of rubbish that would otherwise go to landfill? More on this later. Any suggestions gratefully received at jennystacy6@gmail.com

The last picture shows the 'nearly new' things I found at Petersfield's annual Save the Children sale over this weekend:
 A handmade embroidered cotton blouse; a fine wool blue pattern scarf; a Crea outfit (we used to sell Crea at Tricot Too where I once worked. A very expensive Scandanavian label) and a cashmere scarf. The napkins in the bag above were also found at the same sale.