Making old clothes into funky bags
Ranked #2,302 in Healthy Living, #43,785 overall
Any clothing can make a bag
This lens joins my other recycling lenses (links below the guestbook) to hopefully save you some money and keep the "trash" out of the landfill.
I'll add more bags as I go along but there are only so many hours in the day. I hope the examples I'm showing will help to inspire your own ideas.
Why not make a funky bag for a young teen as a gift, you could even team it up with a hat and scarf set from recycled clothing for a complete ensemble.
If you make something from your old clothes, please let me know in the guestbook what you have done.
Making old clothes into funky bags by Katherine Carington Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 UK: Scotland License.
Based on a work at www.squidoo.com.
First up - a bag from a pair of kids' jeans
... well worn, these were worn by more than one of my children
Well, more correctly, what was left of an old pair of black corduroy jeans after I made my little corduroy pony out of them.
I'm one of those folks who doesn't throw much away and these have been in the cupboard for over twenty years. They would fit a child of about 7 years of age - well, not now they won't LOL
As you can see, I've cut the jeans across the very tops of the legs, cutting through the seam at the crotch. I have also cut off the waistband and will use that as the strap.
There is quite a bit of fade wear on the back of these jeans so I want that to end up on the inside of the bag. This will also give me two internal pockets :-)
I'm one of those folks who doesn't throw much away and these have been in the cupboard for over twenty years. They would fit a child of about 7 years of age - well, not now they won't LOL
As you can see, I've cut the jeans across the very tops of the legs, cutting through the seam at the crotch. I have also cut off the waistband and will use that as the strap.
There is quite a bit of fade wear on the back of these jeans so I want that to end up on the inside of the bag. This will also give me two internal pockets :-)
Step two in making this five pocket bag
... turn inside out but don't forget to leave the zip down
Next you need to turn the cloth inside out so you have the right sides together.
You'll find that most jeans have a flap which covers the inside of the zip when it's closed, you need to cut this away or it will hamper access to one of the pockets.
Pin the top and bottom edges and stitch them together making sure you leave the zip open or you'll have trouble performing the next step.
This only requires a simple running or back stitch but please take care to use strong thread.
You'll find that most jeans have a flap which covers the inside of the zip when it's closed, you need to cut this away or it will hamper access to one of the pockets.
Pin the top and bottom edges and stitch them together making sure you leave the zip open or you'll have trouble performing the next step.
This only requires a simple running or back stitch but please take care to use strong thread.
Step three in making the five pocket bag
... turn it all out the right way again
Now you will see why the zip has to be left open when stitching the bag as it's through the zip that we must turn the bag out the right way again.
Having pulled the bag all out the right way through the zip it is now folded in half, with the back pockets together in the middle. Pin and stitch along the bottom edge and down the open side to fix the two sides together.
I used a very simple oversewing in strong black thread which will not show when the bag is completed.
Having pulled the bag all out the right way through the zip it is now folded in half, with the back pockets together in the middle. Pin and stitch along the bottom edge and down the open side to fix the two sides together.
I used a very simple oversewing in strong black thread which will not show when the bag is completed.
Adding some decor to your new bag
... beads, buttons, baubles, braid, odd earrings, anything can be used to decorate a bag
I added a very simple twist made of two different colours of wool to the top opening of the bag, just before finishing stitching the side seam.
Blue and orange stand out well against the black. I could just as easily have jazzed this up by adding fancy buttons in a pattern or animal shapes, floral shapes, let your imagination go wild.
Again, I used a simple oversewing technique to attach the twist of colour to the top opening.
Blue and orange stand out well against the black. I could just as easily have jazzed this up by adding fancy buttons in a pattern or animal shapes, floral shapes, let your imagination go wild.
Again, I used a simple oversewing technique to attach the twist of colour to the top opening.
Five pockets
... if you want a top flap, it's easy to add one, you can work it out, I'm sure
On the inside of the bag, you have the two back pockets of the jeans and the main compartment.
But from the side, take the zip down and you have two more large pockets.
Depending on the size of the jeans and the length of the zip, these could be used for carrying CDs or DVDs.
But from the side, take the zip down and you have two more large pockets.
Depending on the size of the jeans and the length of the zip, these could be used for carrying CDs or DVDs.
Adding the strap
... any length you want, make from fabric, string, rope, chain
As you can see above, I added a large brassy button to the side of the bag, just above the zip. This carries one end of the strap - which conveniently comes with a buttonhole in it.
I know that some pairs of jeans use stud poppers as a fastening, you can easily remove the stud poppers but you will be left with a small hole. You can make this larger, edge it with buttonhole stitch and do as I have done or, you can stitch that end of the strap into the inside of the bag as I did with the other end of this one - if you recall, this is the waistband I cut off way back at the beginning.
If you want a strap which is longer than the waistband of the jeans you are using, you could always cut lengths from one of the legs to stitch together or find a piece of braid or chain (visit your hardware store) to use as a strap.
I know that some pairs of jeans use stud poppers as a fastening, you can easily remove the stud poppers but you will be left with a small hole. You can make this larger, edge it with buttonhole stitch and do as I have done or, you can stitch that end of the strap into the inside of the bag as I did with the other end of this one - if you recall, this is the waistband I cut off way back at the beginning.
If you want a strap which is longer than the waistband of the jeans you are using, you could always cut lengths from one of the legs to stitch together or find a piece of braid or chain (visit your hardware store) to use as a strap.
Finishings
... add some dangly bits to your bag, if they jingle it's all the better
Clearly, you can make this neater than I have, you can also jazz it up in any way you like. I decided that it needed a finishing touch so I made this little dangle.
I took some of the same wools I had trimmed the opening of the bag with, looped them through a keyring and threaded some beads onto them, finishing off with a wrapped and stitched "knot" to prevent the beads slipping off.
To form one of these knots, wrap your wool around the area you want the knot to be as if you were beginning to wind a very small ball of wool. When you are happy it is big enough, cut the wool with about 9 or 10 inches to spare and thread the end through a large eyed, sharp needle; make several stitches backwards and forwards through the knot to fix it (this can be done to form a pattern on the 'knot'), cut the excess from the wool and finish off the end of your wool by burying it somewhere in the ball.
I then added a string of wooden beads to the keyring and finally, a found odd earring on a short piece of chain.
The effect is great and the beads make a satisfying jingling sound against the metal earring when the bag is moved.
I took some of the same wools I had trimmed the opening of the bag with, looped them through a keyring and threaded some beads onto them, finishing off with a wrapped and stitched "knot" to prevent the beads slipping off.
To form one of these knots, wrap your wool around the area you want the knot to be as if you were beginning to wind a very small ball of wool. When you are happy it is big enough, cut the wool with about 9 or 10 inches to spare and thread the end through a large eyed, sharp needle; make several stitches backwards and forwards through the knot to fix it (this can be done to form a pattern on the 'knot'), cut the excess from the wool and finish off the end of your wool by burying it somewhere in the ball.
I then added a string of wooden beads to the keyring and finally, a found odd earring on a short piece of chain.
The effect is great and the beads make a satisfying jingling sound against the metal earring when the bag is moved.
A Laptop Bag
... something many folks need these days
Made in a very similar way to the little shoulder bag for a child (above), this laptop bag was actually made from an ancient pair of cotton dungarees.Obviously, there is one fold less in this bag, as there is no zip to pull the rest through. However, cutting at the crotch and straightening out the seams gives a good sized bag. It didn't dawn on me until afterwards that this is the perfect size for a laptop, though you may want to add a little padded protection inside the bag to prevent damage from bumps.
The flap to close the bag is simply the neatened up top of the dungarees and since this garment had two patch pockets at the back, with the flap folding over perfectly to cover these, I only need to decide whether this will close with poppers, buttons or velcro as any of these will do. I have marked the position of the ends of the flap with pins and will stitch the popper/button/velcro approximately half an inch above these pins.
The shoulder strap is made from strips cut from the legs of the dungarees, doubled over a couple of times and then stitched through all the layers to give it strength.
I used zig-zag stitch throughout because it has enough give to not snap when weight is applied and I machine stitched this item though it could just as easily be handstitched.
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Got ideas to share? Want to comment on this lens?
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katlovestrouble
Apr 21, 2012 @ 1:07 am | delete
- I have always wanted to make one of these bags...thanks for making this lens and for the great instructions and photos!
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WriterJanis
Jan 18, 2012 @ 4:07 am | delete
- Great ways to recycle old clothes. Blessed!
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purpleclouds
Jan 15, 2012 @ 3:33 pm | delete
- very creative, I like the laptop bag :) thanks for sharing
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spartakct
Dec 4, 2011 @ 9:56 pm | delete
- Cool lens!
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teriann
Nov 16, 2011 @ 12:10 pm | delete
- Great inspirations. I re-purpose fabric scraps from sample books and odd scrap pieces from odd cuts from jobs. thanks for sharing your inspiration. I also wanted to mention that you were the first squidoo to ever post on my first lens and here we are almost three years later I truly appreciate your creativity. I will share this lens on my repurpose fabric page.
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