Thursday, July 2, 2009

Recent Project

This is a bag I recently finished. It was made from a repurposed men's size extra large shirt. The shirt was made out of a very soft suede-like polyester fabric. Sorry for the colors in the photos, I borrowed my brother's camera and it is an older model. The color is more of a dark greenish tan than what is shown. The flap is actually the top of the sleeve, and was designed to utilize the shape of the sleeve cap. I did a crazy quilt cover on the flap. The bag is fully lined and I used fleece as the interfacing to maintain the softness of the bag. The over all size of the closed bag is 13" wide X 15" high.
With the flap open, you can see the two front pockets of the shirt which have button closures, handy for things you don't want to lose in the bottom of the bag like sunglasses, keys, etc.

The lining:


Close up of the stitching detail on the flap and strap. The strap is long enough to wear across your chest to facilitate hands free carriage. I hope you enjoyed looking at my little project. I have a couple more of these shirts in different colors, a rich burgundy/wine color and an olive green.
I did not use all of the shirt in this bag, only one sleeve and part of the front and half of the back. I don't have pictures of the other items I made from it. They included a wallet, a cross body "rock" pouch for a friend's son (he wanted an "Indiana Jones" bag), one bracelet and one chapstick carrier/key fob out of the cuffs and a couple of eyeglass cases. I kind of made it a quest to see exactly how much of the shirt I could use and how many items I could make from it. By the time I was finished, I had only a couple very tiny scraps left.



5 comments:

Jen said...

Hi Carol!
Thanks so much for your lovely anniversary wishes, they meant alot!! And I love the bag!, such a great idea! I really love the quilted flap with the embroidery stitching. I have a great old plus size denim shirt in my stash and your bag would be the perfect use for it - do you mind if I 'borrow' your pattern :)?
hugs!
Jen

Tammy said...

What a cute bag and great idea!

Jen said...

Thanks so much Carol!! I might need a bit of help though, so hope you don't mind some questions ;)!
Hugs to you

Carol R. said...

Jenny, no problem, you can email me or leave a comment here with any questions you may have.

Carol

Dandelion Quilts said...

What a cute and roomy bag!