Being locked down gives you the opportunity to do things you otherwise don't have time for. I'm lucky to be able to have plenty of supplies (for now) to create bags. I'm still learning as this is only my third bag and haven't done anything remarkable before.
Bold Or Stupid?
After watching a bunch of videos and trying out two type of bags, I kinda went rogue with this. The first one was too small for me, I needed a bigger tote bag, so i added a few cm here and there to fit my needs. Plus the carry stripes were too short, I needed to redo those last time. So I thought I'd make one that fits my taste and needs.
Bold or stupid? Or maybe both? You can imagine I don't have the necessary experience to go rogue but I did it anyway and started to modify the patter after my taste.
First there were the carry straps. I find them to hard, to rigid if I use interface on the whole surface, so I decided to use on only half and was right as I got the desired results.
The 5R
My plan with these bags is to reuse jeans that in most of the cases are brand new and thrown away because fashion is changing so fast and these are outdated. I don't see why we should throw these away, waste so much material for nothing. Better give them a new life.
So I'm recycling denim and zippers that come with them but also trying to use everything I get. Interfacing is a material that can be used totally, every little piece of it. You just put the pieces one on the other and iron it. As you can see those stripes, those are perfect for the carry straps.
Pockets And Challenges
At this point I guess you can call me a pocket addict and I have no right to get mad at you as you're right.
Pockets always come in handy and I don't see why not use the jeans' pockets. Those always look good, some are very nicely decorated. It is a challenge for me as I need to sew in straight line and do the best work but so far so good. Look at it. It's not exceptional but it's acceptable.
Wanting to use all the good and nice part of the jeans, I just made my life much more harder. Matching the upper part with the rest was a challenge as I needed to match the double line but I did it. I'd say this is perfect, no deviations.
Not so much the pack part, where there's a couple of mm distance between the two lines. It's not the end of the world, I can live with that and maybe others won't even notice it.
Carry straps could have been nicer, no major error but this one is not quite straight.
This is the front part of the bag and all in all I'm ok with it.
The Lining And The Fun Part
Lining is another fun part of the bag making as you get to choose what kind of lining do you want and play Lego or puzzle with it. I'm working with shirts wish are also brand new, unused even though I'm buying them at the second hand shop, like many other people in the world making upcycled bags. For this type of jeans I thought this striped shirt will be perfect.
The back side of the shirt is not enough for lining if you're making a bigger bag, so I needed to piece together 2 pieces, but you won't notice where the merge is.
Have I ever told you I'm a pocket addict? I guess I have. The first two bags had 3 inside pockets, this one has 4. I decided to use the shirt's pocket, I don't see why I should waste it.
So here it is, the pocket. Wait, something is wrong with it. 😁 Yes, it is, it should not face right but up. I should rotate it but I can't, I needed to do it again. Unfortunately this is a rookie mistake and I'm always making one, each time. I'm not upset as this is how I am learning. I call that the cost of learning. This wasn't such a big mistake as I could still salvage both the lining and the pocket, but it took me an extra half an hour to correct my mistake.
So this is the inside of the bag. Can you see the three compartment pocket? No?
What about now?
This is the other pocket, that I salvaged.
Fun Facts
The jeans I've used is not high end but not a cheap crap either, so I was expecting to find an exceptional work as I've thought they are professional. When sewing the original pockets I saw that the two are not identical and I'm not talking about two mm but more like one cm. Have a look.
I'm not worried about this as it's not a contest and most likely at first glance no one is going to see that. it's just that I wasn't expecting this from the company.
So this is my second upcycled, double pocket bag, and my third bag. I had a lot of fun from the beginning to the end and I'm going to do more as this lockdown gives me time. So stay tuned people :)
This is my entry to #needleworkmonday.