Upcycled handbag hardware

I do love to make sewn handbags. I have made tote bags, little pouches and messenger bags..... It is a lot of fun to make something so useful.

One of the main parts of the bag is the handle.   In the past I've usually sewn the handles out of fabric, although sometimes I purchase leather handles to add to the bag.   One thing that I've often wanted to try is to recycle handles from a discarded bag onto a new one.

A few weeks ago, I was in the Goodwill store and came across a whole bunch of bags that were priced between four and $10.  

these five bags cost $26.00 all together with the tax.  

I immediately set about the deconstruction.  

These three that I took apart are not leather, but vinyl,   They have a lot of great detailing, and there are alos some good magnetic clasps in there.

A person can learn a lot by observing how a commercial bag is assembled!

After this take-apart phase must come the "thinking about" phase, which can take a while.

In my case, it co-incided with a "sewing with Tim Holtz fabris" phase, and an "english paperpiecing hexagons" phase....

these hexagons are bigger than ones I've used before, two inches on each side, so as to show off the amazing fabrics,

After a while, my path became more clear.  

I decided to use the hanles and bottom section from this black bag,

I sewed the hexagons together into a horizontal section three hexies tall, (by machine)

then, I appliqued them to a rectangle of cotton/linen that I had on hand.   the rectangle is about 16" tall and 40" long.  (it was longer than needed so that I could fine tune the length later as I was sewing it all together to fit the base.)

Next, I backed it with a rectangle of foam interfacing, my favorite is by Annie's Soft and Stable.  I did some very simple quilting 

quilting was mostly straight lines and curves from corner to corner,

To attach the bottom, I ended up stitching it by hand, using the holes that were already punched.  however vinyl is a lot softer than leather I think and so it isn't hard to make new holes when you want to. 

It was a pretty simple totebag construction, no pockets or any complicated stuff.

I sewed the handles on by hand as well.

it has a very simple lining, which was cut extra tall so that I just folded it down over the top edge of the bag to finish the edge.

It is a pretty good size!

the handles are spaced a wee bit wider apart than I'd like, but I didnt want to cover up the butterfly on the fabric,

it should work well for all sort of carrying!

As you may have noticed, I have several more rescued bags to use.   so, now I am back to the "thinking about" phase!

Easy Zipper Pouch

I picked up some zippers the other day with the idea of making some easy little pouches.

(Still feeling inspired from the ones I saw at the modern quilt guild when they had their pouch exchange,)

To get me started, I first googled some images of fabric zipper pouches

From there I noticed a nice bag that had a flat bottom, and it even had a tutorial.

I used the idea of the shape, but I tend to avoid sewing extra linings when possible,so as i made my bag, I used more traditional quilting techniques.

Sadly, I cannot find that page again....

I had a piece of woven fabric that I had stitched on for a while last year. At the time I just felt like doing some handstitching,..  I had taken some one inch strips of brown fabrics, and did a simple over/ under weave, and basted it to muslin,  after a while it just landed in my basket of UFOs.   And you know how lately I've just been trying to reuse some things to get them out of my UFO basket.

The larger background piece that I chose is one of the Kaufman Essex linen fabrics

I drew out an outline on the linen and pinned the woven piece on top of it. The outline is about 15 inches wide and 14 inches tall in the photo above. Then I layered it with some leftover batting and for the lining chose a dark orange shot Cotton by Westminster, 

These photos show the machine quilting that I did through all of the layers. I didn't bother quilting the areas that would be cut away.

When I laid it out after quilting I noticed that it had  become askew and was slanting on the top and bottom edges.

So I just trimmed them off straight again.

I sewed that edges of the zipper to the top edges, but instead of selling in an extra lining, I just used a piece of Jacquard ribbon as a facing to cover the raw edges.

Sewed the side seams, adding in another bit of ribbon on one of them, and very importantly, leaving the zipper open! otherwise you cant turn it right side out later! then sewed the boxed bottom.

Zigzagged the raw edges where possible,

Turned it inside out,

And voila, the pouch was finished.

For the quilting I used a dark brown thread on the linen so that the stitching would show up.