Morsbaggers come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, from all backgrounds and have very different skills and wonderful ways of morsbagging. Morsbaggers are from different countries, counties, towns and villages; some are schoolchildren others are students, the elderly, prisoners, mums, dads, soldiers, WI ladies, transition towners – in short, ANYONE can be a morsbagger.
How YOU can join in…
1) Make a morsbag!
Take a look at the basic pattern or watch the ‘How to Make a Morsbag‘ video and raid your airing cupboard/fabric stash for some tired bedding/scraps and transform them into fabulous, reusable morsbags.
Order some labels and sew them on.
Set up a pod and don’t forget to add your morsbags to your pod tally so the number rises on the website – this will inspire people to join in and get sewing.
2) Set up a pod!
A pod is a group, or you can also be a solopodder and make morsbags by yourself. Many morsbaggers meet around a kitchen table or a local venue. Sewing, chatting and eating cake are important elements.
Name your ‘pod’ something catchy and/or relevant and register so that you can add the morsbags you make to the central tally. The rising tally inspires morsbaggers to keep sewing and shows just what is achievable through combined effort. A few morsbags a month from each of us can equal tens of thousands.
There is also a leaderboard of pods on the Pods Page – the most prolific pods appear at the top. Have a scroll and feel wowed!
Pods are shown on the ‘morsmap’, so have a browse and see who’s nearby!
3) Use your morsbags!
Take your new morsbag shopping with you…it should be easier to remember to take it as you put some effort into making it.
Stash some in the car, in your bike basket and in your handbag. You should never be morsbag-less.
4) Give morsbags away!
Give morsbags to friends, family, colleagues, secret crushes, post them through post boxes, bag the person in front of you in the supermarket queue, pop them onto windscreens in carparks, wrap presents in them, give them to a local shop to distribute – in short, get the lovely morsbags you’ve made into the wild so they can be used and reused and reused….
Also why not join in a mass handout?
5) Don’t fancy giving morsbags away? Help with another one of your talents…
Some morsbaggers don’t feel comfortable approaching people with a freebie, and that’s fine. There’s always someone who similarly may not fancy making morsbags but would be thrilled to accept your beautifully crafted morsbags and use their skills of ‘chatting’ to people about the cause armed with the end product. Many pods find that members have different strengths and ‘roles’ i.e. one loves to talk to people about morsbags, another only likes cutting, another enjoys the logistics of sourcing fabric etc. There are also ‘solopodders’ who happily make bags and have an arrangement with a local shop/library/school etc. to distribute the bags if they don’t enjoy that aspect. Anything and everything helps!
6) Join a pod!
Have a browse of the ‘morsmap’ to see who’s in your area and ask if you can join in, donate fabric etc. There’s more than likely someone nearby, so new friends can be made and resources shared. Even if a pod is showing as not wanting more members, it’s still a great way to share tips and coordinate locally.
7) Set up workshops in local schools/groups in order to inspire them to set up their own pod!
There’s nothing like being shown how to make a morsbag rather than being told! Take a look at the resources page to help you with all you need to inspire others…
8) Hold a stall at a local summer/Christmas fair!
Local events are always begging morsbaggers to hold stalls as they are ethical, fun, community based, green and creative. Just remember that everything to do with morsbags is free, so organisers will have to give you the plot for free – we’ve never had any problems with this, so hold your ground if anyone insists! Holding a stall is a really fun, productive (in terms of meeting people and making contacts) and exhausting way to promote morsbags! Choose how much you want to commit to – e.g. an interactive sewing session or simply an info session with morsbags to give away… There are plenty of tips on the forum to help you get started.
Click here for help and tips for holding a morsbagging stall.
9) Join in on a Handout Day!
Start stockpiling the morsbags you make so that you can be ready to hand them out on the same day as other morsbaggers all over the world – it’s a good way to coordinate getting a whole batch into the wild at the same time. Added to which, it’s a really satisfying feeling targeting an area and feeling part of a wider effort. Get your friends and the local press involved – have some tea/wine and cake afterwards to celebrate. Don’t forget to let everyone know how it went by updating your pod news and perhaps posting on Flickr and the forum.
10) Donate fabric!
Do you have a guilty stash of fabric that hasn’t been used for 25 years? Inherited old bedding that you don’t need? Even hideous fabrics look fantastic reincarnated as morsbags – and it’s a fact that there’s always someone who LOVES that morsbag that you thought was so unlikely…
Some pods put a ‘collection’ point in a local shop so people can drop off unwanted fabric at their leisure. Others advertise locally (card in shop, gumtree, village newsletter, local papers etc.) and arrange to personally pick up. It’s incredible how much fabric is lying dormant and dusty and needs to be liberated and given a second chance at life. Added to which, tonnes of textile waste is filling landfill sites when it could be doing something useful instead of new cotton (involving pesticides, waste water etc.) being produced.
For example: An old single duvet cover may be unsellable in a charity shop due to one small hole. Cut around this and at least six morsbags can be made. Hurrah! Have a rummage.
11) Publicise morsbags in any way you think fit!
Do you write a blog, have a journalist friend, write a local newsletter, sit on a school committee, have a skill for talking to your craft group? Then please go ahead and enthuse. Take a look at our resources page for more help… If nothing else, perhaps you might want to walk around in one of our t-shirts 😉
12) Write letters and/or send morsbags to high profile people!
You never know…
13) Don’t accept plastic bags!
If you’ve forgotten your beloved morsbag, try and do without it – juggle your groceries, use the trolley to take them to the car and unload straight into the boot – just try not to give in!
Psssst! If you have any skills in applying for grants so we can provide free labels – we’d love to hear from you!
Actually, we’d love to hear from you anyway, so feel free to get in touch: admin@morsbags.com