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reuse jeans that in most of the cases are brand new and thrown away because fashion is changing so fast and these are outdated.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.
Shared on Twitter
The double pocket looks absolutely sexy !tip
Lol, thank you my friend, I'm glad you like it 😊
🎁 Hi @erikah! You have received 0.1 HIVE tip from @davidke20!
@davidke20 wrote lately about: So, This Is What We Called Movement Controlled Order? Feel free to follow @davidke20 if you like it :)
Sending tips with @tipU - how to guide.
Thanks for sharing your creative and inspirational post on HIVE!
This post got curated and you received a 100% upvote from our non-profit curation service!
Join the official DIYHub community on HIVE and show us more of your amazing work!
Many thanks.
🤗🤗🤗😍😘
Aww, how sweet of you! 🤗😍❤️
I love what you do! Upcycling cost a bit of time, and lots of creativity, but its something more people should do. A few years ago, I run a few projects, upcycling mostly merchandise of brands (event organisers) into laptop sleeves, wallets and bags. We made small production cycles working together with shops in the city employing people who have difficulties to find jobs. We wanted to try and see if we could make something sustainable from it, a little (project) company which could be paid by the income. Unfortunately we didn't succeed in that; Partially due to one of our partners decided to leave us to enjoy after life. Since then, I from time to time thinking of reviving this project, but not really have the time to re-launch again, and make sure we getting enough projects done. But maybe, sometime in the future.
I'm so glad to hear about your business and sad to hear it's not functioning anymore. Those products must have been nice. I'm a huge fan of recycling, upcycling, reusing and all that and can appreciate creativity.
I believe transforming something into something else needs a lot of creativity.
Now it's late here but tomorrow I'm going to check out your blog for sure 😊
I still think I'll startup upcycling projects again. Maybe later than sooner, but that doesn't matter :)
Two years ago I published something around my projects and products that time. Below that post, a link to another post with some prototype products: https://esteem.app/upcycle/@edje/upcycling-or-or-or-create-products-of-value-from-waste-or-or-or-my-new-project
Those are very cool things and I'm glad you're thinking of working on the project again. I wish you good luck and thank you for posting me the link.
And the fun was with the laptop sleeves; We even made a little profit (not counting out own time spend on the whole project though). I do believe when taking merchandise from companies, especially in the entertainment and fashion industry, and turn their brands into something new, their fans will actually pay some good money for it. Like they did with the laptop sleeves. The problem with Fashion is the marketeers who don't want their brand to be toughed by others. The entertainment industry is easier, but this industry is very fragmented and how relatively low budgets. That said, there is a potential to turn around upcycling into something sustainable in the sense it can be done in such a way, it'll also feed those working on the projects.
I totally agree with you. Especially on the fact that not everyone is happy to see their products turned into something else. I've been staying out of using labels till now, I've only used one s'Oliver shirt label so far, however I've got a Levi's jeans and I'm going to use that entirely. Let's see what people are going to think of it.
Sorry for the late reply but with all the covid-19 madness I'm busier than ever and have less time for myself.
I was thinking of creating a tag on hive #upcycled and post our creative work. If you care to join, I'd be happy to see your creative work. This is fun and I'm going to do more in the future.
No worries being later; At HIVE nothing is ever too late :)
I think such a tag would be great! Don't have too much products myself to actually put onto that tag though. Am more a project /product manager and business guy rather than the designer :) But I'll will visit that tag for sure! Maybe you like to create a community? Maybe also a bit too early, probably not to many users into upcycling, dont know to be honest.
Nice and innovative thinking. The bag looks cool
Thank you very much.