Tote bag or purse?

I kept hoping somebody would donate tote bags for the filmmakers. I imagined the experience for the filmmakers arriving and wanted them to feel they were part of something real. We are a first-year festival and they sent their money in on faith with nothing promised in the way of prizes beyond the festival itself.

Well, I got another one of my ideas. You see, for all of my adult life, I have carried from town to town, apartment to house, a large box of fabric. My mother used to sew. When she died, my sister and I cleared out a whole roomful of unused cloth, some of it fabric she had owned since before I was born.

I know how to sew, more or less, the way I know how to cook - from watching my mother. Well, I hauled out that box and found more than enough fabric to make every single filmmaker a tote. I know, I'm crazy busy, the festival is looming, and sewing is not my area of expertise. But two rectangles and a strap...how much time could it take?

I forgot that I am constitutionally unable to make thirty of the same thing, or even thirty similar things. I started getting fancy. I played with shape and rick-rack and stitching. Lili and Ferrania got in the spirit and whenever they had idle time would pick up a square and start playing around with it.

Well, we're two weeks out and almost done. We have about thirty bags made so far, and depending on how many filmmakers actually can come, we may already be finished. True, none of the stitching is straight, nor are the corners square or the straps even. But every single one is one-of-a-kind, like the women who made these films.




The plan is to let each filmmaker choose the bag she wants. The early arrivals will have the most pick. But no Filene's basement tug of war, ladies. If someone else has a bag you must take home: negotiate the deal.