From skirts to bags

Own me £21.50

A selection of bags I have made this week. All these bags have been recycled from skirts. Read on for a how to on the bottom bag.

Own me £14.50

Own me £14.50

Firstly find an old Telegraph Magazine (well any magazine will do, someone just happened to leave this one lying around) and take off the cover. Cut 2 pieces of fabric the size of the cover, One for the outside of the bag, the other for the lining. 

Next, taking each piece of fabric separately,  fold in half, keeping the outside of the fabric on the inside, and sew up both sides.

This step can be a little tricky. Cut a triangle of paper to help. (take a piece of paper and measure 1.5 inches from the corner in both directions and join to make triangle). Flatten the corner you have just stitched so the the seam you have sewn is directly on top of the fold line, pin paper in place and stitch across corner.

Placement of paper triangle

Right side of fabric after stitching corner

Once you have stitched the corners, place lining and outer corners together and stitch to hold in place. See photo below.

 Next you need to think about how to finish the bag with a top handles. As this bag is from a skirt I have used the waistband. Firstly I shortened it. Then I used a strip of fabric to make the handles. As the waistband was already stitched at the top I had to unstitch a little section for each handle to slot into.

Once the handles were in place I attached the magnetic clasp.
For a good demo on fitting magnetic clasps look here.

Now time to sew up the bag.

Take time to ensure that it all lines up correctly and use plenty of pins to hold it in place whilst stitching.

I stitched the top to the bag, and then stitched around the top of the top to fix handles into place.

Now if all that is too much like hard work - take a look in my shop and buy yourself a bag.

Enjoy.

Julia