I made one! I took two pieces of corrugated plastic (good as it is light but firm and protective), glued felt to both sides of this, then sewed a fabric pouch for this to all go into, and I folded the top ends of the fabric pouch inside. The outside strip I actually glued around (I am a bit addicted to hot gluing things :)) and attached velcro. The fabric I inherited from my grandmother’s stash and the corrugated plastic came as packaging with records so it was all free, woo!
AFTER:
BEFORE:
The pictures explain all the steps really, it took about 20mins. I got given the Aveda bag for free when I did my annual salon-size bottle purchase of shampoo. It’s a useful great quality bag made from really thick cotton however I don’t want to be an advertising billboard when the logo and text is not very interesting so I followed their “r√©duisez reutilis√©z recyclez” instructions ;) The ikat scraps of fabric I inherited from my grandmother’s fabric stash, I wonder what she used the rest for?
When I showed a friend the bag they said I had “upcycled” it, it’s always pleasant to get something for free isn’t it. Black bags are good on the bike too as there are always those mysterious black smudges that appear from the lock and if your chain falls off.
(PS. The Takashi Murakami flowers in the picture are like my small version of what Pharrell Williams has!)
Back in the spring I bought this bike basket and after good use all summer I thought I would cheer it up a bit for the winter. I have quite a lot of ribbon gathered from gifts, parcels, and bought here and there. For this I chose a few that looked very cheerful and wrapped them really tightly around the handle starting at one end and working over towards the other. I stitched each change of ribbon to the previous one so it’s like one long continuous ribbon. If my hot glue gun had been working I might have glued it too but as it wasn’t I didn’t. It wasn’t important in any case as it feels very secure. The idea came to me when part of the wicker handle unraveled and I tied it together with a really bright pink ribbon. This ribbon wrapping idea could be applied to other things couldn’t it, chair legs, banisters, or even a bike frame.
I have this general plan to think up things that will cheer up winter. Winter is my favourite season but sometimes leaving home in dark and getting back in dark can be gloomy. Active steps to make winter cheerful are needed. This is my first step.
I made a pouch for my make-up brushes when I go away. I have a black fake leather one I got free from M.A.C. but it’s really not my style. I think it’s nice when away if your things are cheerful are a reminder of things at home. I used the last bit of the liberty fabric left from these cushions. The inner blue is actually from an old set of pajamas, the ties are from an old apron.
A tag for my new hand luggage size suitcase, the suitcase is a bit serious-looking for me so I wanted something that was a bit more personal and handmade to attach to it. The apron I mentioned above is embroidered in the sashiko style, I used a piece of that for the back, and I embroidered my initials on an old piece of linen sheet. The ties are also pieces of the ties of the apron, I saved the ties as they are a bit worn looking in a nice way.
I made myself a new wallet, it is BIG though so technically it might count as a clutch bag. I like to keep all my important stuff together (cards, iPhone, cash) as then I only have to keep my eye on one thing and can transfer everything from bag to bag easily together.
The cotton flower fabric is from the Nippori Fabric Town area in Tokyo. The piece around the middle is from my inherited fabric stash, it was a belt of some sort. The zip was also from my archives so I think it is quite old, I was wondering if using a metal vintage zip was the best idea (will it break sooner?) but I wanted to try it out.
There are three pockets, two which are open and the one at the back closes with a zip. I put a layer of felt underneath the outside layer of fabric and the front pocket to give it extra stiffness and also to provide some padding. It took a little bit of thinking to work out as I wanted to make it from one long strip of fabric and to have the seams hidden, not to just have flat rectangles that are sewed together. I made a paper prototype to check I had everything straight in my mind and when it came to the actual fabric I hand sewed it together with a loose running stitch before committing with the sewing machine.
The inside. I did think about having a magnetic closure or velcro or buttons for the main flap but decided against it as I wanted to keep it as streamlined as possible.
And filled.
This is me showing it to Beep ;) You can get more of an idea of the size from this picture (she is a normal cat size).
