Recycling, Reusing, Repurposing, Again

Most likely it's been ages since my last post in this community. I can't even remember when I last posted, or what it was that I posted about.There was a time, during the Covid lockdown, when I posted about my bags regularly, but since then my focus has shifted and my time for creative work has been reduced to ... zero.

However, not long ago, I had the occasion and the idea to create something by recycling almost everything I used for this piece.

The whole thing started with this pair of jeans I got from a friend.

Most likely it looks awful to many of you and it was, as a pair of jeans, but it was a Wrangler, which means high quality (maybe the highest) compared to the stretchy, thin jeans you can buy these days. This is why I thought it would be good for a bag.

The main idea was a simple tote bag, nothing complicated, but still, I wanted to make it unique. Back in the day I had the exact measures for my shoulder bags, but in this case I let myself be guided by the fabric. So I cut out the biggest piece the jeans allowed me to, keeping the sewing at the middle and the bottom as I needed those.

To boost the design, I thought I'd use a piece of this fabric, which I have put aside because of the colors. I love blue and kiwi green together and I thought this would be a nice addition to the blue jeans.

This would have been the idea, but somehow it wasn't what I wanted after all. Looked awful in fact, so instead of creating something I didn't like from the start, I went to find something else to use for my design.

Going through of my reusable fabrics, I came across this lace, which I saved from a table cloth years ago. This lace is handmade, by either my grandmother or my mom. I had no heart to throw it away, so I thought I'd use it for this tote. Lace and jeans have been in vogue years ago, I've never had anything of this combination, so ... why not.

So far I made all my bags with lining, pockets inside (lots of them, some bags had four or five pockets) and zipper, but this one had no lining. For me it's easier to work with lining and it holds the fabric nicely, but it would have complicated the process and I was not really in the mood.

I market the corners, which are usually 5cm x 5cm, this size works for me.

For the straps, I did them respecting the rules. Even though the fabric was not stretchy, because this is a tote bag, which has to hold some weight and not using interface would result in stretching, which you would definitely not want.

I was a bit uncomfortable with the straps, because it's easier to sew them, when you have lining as well, but I took my chances. I was a bit worried the stitches would not hold, but life prove me wrong.

What happened was I made a mistake when measuring and the distance between the two stripes was bigger on one side. I can't stand such mistakes and even though it meant extra work, I could not leave it like that, so I had to redo the whole process. This is where I got the confirmation that my work was quality, regarding the stitches. You can't even imagine how much struggle it was to remove the stitches, which means it would have held any appropriate weight.

Finally I got it right.

This was the part that gave me a bit of headache. When you have lining, you don't have to worry about these ends, but without lining, these would deteriorate fast, especially during washing. Yes, you read it right. All my bags are washable at 40°C. But denim is not a thin fabric, so you need to choose a smart solution.

And this is how it looks like. It's not the most elegant solution, but you can only see the stitches if you know where to look and the light is right. But then again, this is a tote bag, not some high end bag, so I'm ok with it.

And voilà! Here's my new/old shopping/tote bag, made of 98% recycled material. Only the thread is new here and the interface as those are not reusable.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, maybe keep it for shopping, or donate it to the charity shop. Most likely I'm going to keep it because of the lace as either my mom or my grandmother had worked hard to make the lace.

What do you think?

I love giving items a new life, a new purpose. My grandmother was a seamstress, my mom worked with leather all her life, but none of them has ever seen me sewing as I started recently. I think they would be satisfied, considering I have learnt sewing from YouTube, alone, just for fun.

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