Weekend Project: My Bundles of Love

Peace, to have meaning for many who have only known suffering in both peace and war,

must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health and education,

as well as freedom and human dignity.

~ Ralph Johnson Bunche

Okay, Ralph doesn't explicitly mention "fabric" in his list, but I think it's clearly implied... ;)

My recently rediscovered Joann's gift card and I went shopping to build 2 "Iraqi Bundles of Love" this weekend! Sadly, the gift card ran out of steam long before I did! ;)

About the only things that I know are that the Iraqi people is that green is a very popular color and that they are frugal (at least by current necessity, if not by nature) and will make good use of anything and everything that we send.

Building a couple of bundles with those "guidelines" seemed like a pretty unconstrained task and I drifted aimlessly around the store for a while - picking things up and them putting them back down again somewhat randomly.

Then, inspiration struck. I decided to make 2 themed bundles - one for baby clothes for a little girl and one for baby clothes for a little boy.

With this plan, I decided to put 3 pieces of fabric in each bundle - a stretch knit, a flannel and a cotton print. And, when it comes to baby clothes, you don't need much fabric, so I got a yard of each.

For each bundle I also added a package of color-coordinated buttons, 2 spools of color-coordinated thread and a package of snap tape. (I threw some pink ric-rac into the baby girl bundle, pictured above.)

Oh, I also added black & white spools of thread and zippers into each bundle - those are staples that everyone should have on hand!

Here (above) I am preparing to wrap the baby girl bundle in the stretch knit fabric.

And here it is, tied with a ribbon, and ready to go into the large, flat rate mail box. I was actually able to get both of my bundles into the same box - so that saves on shipping.

While buying fabric for myself is perhaps my favorite shopping activity, buying fabric for someone else is also pretty fun! I hope some woman opens this bundle and feels as happy and excited about sewing with the supplies as I feel each time I start a new project! :)