mountains of bags!

I've been making lots of stuff recently, just not really had the time to post them anywhere! I was going through things to put them up in my Etsy shop (here if you'd like to have a look), and decided to do a bulk post for most of the bags (haven't quite got through them all yet!) to get them done a bit more quickly! So here goes...

First there are some tote bags and little gift bags made from upcycled bedlinen and a couple of items of clothing (a pretty patterned cotton shirt and an old stiff skirt, no before pics i'm afraid!) and stencilled with some designs from my partner's doodles (he spends most of his time at work on the phone and consequently does a LOT of doodling) - i thought this was a nice bit of artistic collaboration!

 Some of the stencils went a bit smudgy, so only a couple of these eventually made it into my shop, the rest will be used by me as shopping bags or maybe even as large gift bags.

 Next a tote bag made from an old pink jumper -

 And a fabulous Wonder Woman tshirt that became a bag, with straps made of fabric from an unworn turquoise shirt passed to me by a friend for use as fabric -

This amazing patterned cotton dress, thrifted purely for the fabric which i love!

 
 became a handy shopping bag...

With a handy shopping bag pouch!

Then there were these 2 bags, made from a vintage skirt (homemade originally i think) in a fabric that was beautifully patterned, but so thick and plastic-y feeling that it must have been awful to have against your skin! made some great sturdy bags though, and the nasty feeling was on the inside, so problem solved!

Then there was this bag – thrifted as a present for a friend, but i didn’t like the scratched plastic handle, so i replaced it with a longer fabric strap so it could be worn cross-body, and made it adjustable using a ring-pull from a can as a ‘buckle’.

Ta Da!!!

And last but not least (no before pic again, sorry - managed to accidentally delete a load of photos from my computer, arg!) -

This sweet little handbag, made from a beautiful but worn-in-patches toddler dress in gorgeous patterned corduroy, a piece of red velvet from a cushion cover for the handle, some of a dark red cotton valance sheet for the lining, and a bit more of the corduroy dress for a handy inner pocket. The button is an enamelled disc of coconut shell and has been in my stash for years just waiting for the right project. I also had a green button just the same - and guess what! there was just enough corduroy fabric to make one more bag, again using red velvety fabric for the strap, with a dark foresty green sheet for the lining. Sadly my pictures of it also got deleted, when i get round to taking more i'll put some up! xx