Back To Recycling - New Tote Bag

in NeedleWorkMonday3 months ago

Finally, I'm at the point where I had a little time to take out the leftover denim pieces from the times when I was making bags and see what I have. It was quite shocking to see ho much I still have, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. For me, this is not waste or garbage as others would look at it. These are treasures and you'll see why.

When I saw how much fabric I still have, I thought I have two option. One, sell it as bulk as there are many who do that on Vinted. Two, make something out of it and sell the finished product.

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Because I'm here, in the needlework community, you can already guess what I chose and why. To be honest, I could not sell it as I love sewing, have a lot of ideas and this is treasure for me, so I decided to start creating instead of just getting rid of it.

The truth is, I missed sewing a lot and am happy to be able to get back to creating. Seeing so many leftover pieces brought a lot of ideas and now that there's a market I can use, it was time to get back to it.

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Among the leftovers there were some pieces I was working on when I pushed all aside, so I thought let's start with those, so this bag is a result of that.

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This is the back of the bag and as you can see, it is made of so many different pieces, but after I took this photo, made some changes, removed the golden stitches as it looked bad. Not that I'm an artist, but now I understand them, that they are never satisfied with their work and it's hard to decide, when it is finished.

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This is the front of the bag, made of many stripes of different colors. I love this shabby look and it looks good as a bag, but I had to make some changes, till I got here as the first attempt was something different. It's a 40cm x 42cm piece.

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The bag is made of bits and pieces and the interface is also made of pieces 😆 Yes, I cheat a little, because this is a technique you can use with the interfacing. I love using interfacing as it makes the bag keep its shape better. It adds to the cost as it's not cheap (I have just ordered some), but I can't (don't want to) work without it. I was always told "If you do something, so it right" and that's the right way.

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And this is where the dilemma began. I was thinking, should I add a pocket or a label? You don't want to overcrowd it as it looks bad, so I decided to go with the pocket only and it was a good decision.

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Carry straps are always a bit of stress for me. It's not easy to make them right and if you don't do it right, it looks awful. My usual method is to use a 7.5cm wide strap, with 5cm wide interface inside, in the middle, but this time I saw a video with a different technique.

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These straps are 10 cm wide, 76cm long and no interface. It's four-fold, so no interface was needed and I can tell you, it works.

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I was really satisfied with the result. I think these are the best stripes I've ever made.

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For the lining, I had a shirt I bought for pennies at the second hand shop, 100% cotton, a very good quality and nice blue (the camera does some injustice here), so I did some magic to save the embroidered part and the pockets.

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So I merged the front.

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And here it is, in all its splendor 😂 This is the front, as it has the pocket, but not mandatory, you can choose to wear the other side as front too.

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This way you don't get bored of it so easily.

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Has 6 pockets in total. 1 on the outside and 5 on the inside. All my bags have a lot of pockets on the inside as I think it's useful to store all kinds of things.

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It is listed for sale, but for some reason, it got the attention of the platform and it is waiting for approval. I'm curious to see what potential buyers think of it, if there will be someone interested to buy it. I hope so.

So this is it for today. Onto the next one!

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I'm also curious to know if you can sell it! I can imagine sewing well takes tons of time

I always say a similar thing "if you do something, you do it well"

Finally got approved, so people are looking at it. Let's see what my luck is going to be.

I always say a similar thing "if you do something, you do it well"

You know, when I was researching designs on YouTube, you don't want to see what people are posting. Work fabrics wrinkled as hell as they can't bother to iron it, some working on the dirty floor, sloppy sewing. It makes you sick. Good thing there's a dislike button, and bad that it is hidden.

it was good when dislikes were visible but as always we gotta hide what "hurts" people feelings right?

Exactly!

Such an amazing bag! I don't think I've seen a bag made using the waistbands! You are an artist. I love the way you use the shirt as the lining. As a crafter I love all those pockets!!

Aww, thank you, but you're giving me too much credit. I stole the idea of using the waistbands from YouTube as I lived it, the rest is my idea. It's a lot of fun creating something unique 🙂

Wow Erika!!! This tote bag is awesome! I love the design you made with the different straps. Excellent and hard work. I love recycling!! Good luck with your sale 😊

Thank you @mdrguez. I like the design too, it's not the first, most likely not the last one either, but a very good one. Let's see what the potential buyers have to say 😃

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Wowww wowww wowww, I've always liked these kinds of things that are different from the rest, original!!! This is my favourite, I love it!!😍
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Of course that's your favorite as there's only one bag, this one 😂
Thank you, I'm glad you like it, I tried my best 😉

I really love the design, you’ve done a brilliant job. I’d wear it on that side; that’s exactly what I meant, ha ha ha, and the pocket is perfect, we always need one. You’ve reminded me that my friend Loli always tells me she wanted to be a designer… she’s a dressmaker but she also creates her own d

I love how you chose to use the denom scraps. All the bags came out lovely and so useful, repurposing the material.

There's only one bag here, but thank you anyway. It's a good way to reuse old fabric :)

This is beautiful; I love how it turned out and all the details, it's perfect.

Thank you Yoli, I did my best :)

Wow - this is a most fabulous bag, dear @erikah ! I love how professionally you make it, with the interfacing, and the beautiful, simple-but-complex straps... The result is rather perfect, as it seems it could be dressed up or casual style - very lovely work!

Thank you very much Clare. I had a good teacher I found on YouTube and loved how precise and professional her work was. I can even say if it wasn't for her, I would have never started sewing.

I enjoy recycling, I think as much as you do :)

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Wow, so beautiful tote bag! In the past I sewed a couple of tote bags from old shirts of my hubby. It was a funny and very useful way to recycle that old shirts. ❤️

Grazie mille Silvia, sei molto gentile! 💚 I'm glad to read that you used to recycle. It's a great way to create new things.

Amazing. This look really nice

I have no idea what "ama" means, but thank you.

You have such an amazing talent! Making a bag out of jeans is seriously cool

I can assure you, I have zero talent. But thank you I'm glad you like it :)

Thanks for sharing—it turned out beautifully.

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