Retired teacher bags new career from scraps

Peter Dick went from reading a sewing manual, when he was the only man in his wife’s quilting group, to making sought-after tote bags to give back to the community.

The former gym teacher didn’t know a sewing machine from an elliptical machine when he came across a garbage bag of fabric his wife, Thelma, had collected. He figured it was “junk” until she explained.

Then she took him to their church’s quilting group and it opened up a new world for her retired husband.

“I could not sit back and twiddle my thumbs, so when this fell into my lap, it was a good thing to do,” said Dick.

Over the years, Dick has made about 850 tote bags from furniture swatches, the proceeds of which were given to the South East Helping Hands food bank in Steinbach.

The husband-wife duo are a team: Thelma selects the colours and Peter cuts and sews them into bags. Each tote takes two to three hours to create.

“I give the material a new life, and that gives me a lot of satisfaction,” he said.

Nearly 500 million kilograms of textile waste are thrown into landfills every year, a University of Waterloo study found in 2023.

“Not many guys will be sitting and sewing bags,” said Ken Dyck, a former student of Dick’s who is the executive director of South East Helping Hands.

While working at Dufresne Furniture in Steinbach, Dyck helped his former teacher by giving him swatches and selling the bags in store.

“It’s been a wonderful thing for him to keep busy and keep materials out of the landfill. It’s just a win, win,” said Dyck.

All of the proceeds from the bags go to the food bank, which Dyck said feeds 400 families every two weeks.

When Craig Skene was in Steinbach on business, he came across one of the patchwork-style bags and was impressed.

The Decor-Rest Furniture sales representative loved the idea of keeping swatches out of landfills. Skene said just like in the fashion world, 30 new fabric colours arrive each season and he has to make room — so he delivers about 80 pounds of old swatches to Dick’s house.

Manitobans aren’t the only ones who’ve fallen in love with the bags.

Scott Reid, owner of Reid’s Furniture in Thunder Bay, Ont., has given out 600 bags to customers over the last couple of years. He owns at least a dozen of them himself; he uses them to carry groceries and takes them while travelling. He said because they’re made from furniture swatches, they are stronger than most tote bags.

The bags are $5 and are for sale at the Dufresne shop in Steinbach and Reid’s in Thunder Bay.

“They’re like collector’s editions,” he said, noting each bag is one of a kind. “These things sell like hotcakes… These are (worth) $15 to $20 as far as I’m concerned.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca