Hand Made Bags

How to make handbags and grocery bags using old garments and partly used fabrics?

Now a day’s cloths do not get old and remain bright but we get fade up or children get older. Some of the materials are so much of our liking that we do not like to donate those dresses. Those who have a habit of making own designs have a lot of left over pieces of fabrics which cannot be dumped into dustbin. Most important fact is that these are usually made of synthetic fibers and not biodegradable. What is the better way to recycle them? Here is what I made use of such materials.

Step 1: Step 1: Cell Phone Bags With Strap

For this you need

· a finished cell phone bag as template

· fabric for the border and main part

· sewing machine optional (you can even hand stitch the bags)

· iron & ironing board

Using the main fabric piece, cut a rectangle of desired size, according to size of your cell phone. I made it of 22cm x17cm to hold the phone of size 7cmx 14cm. Now stitch a bag using this piece. Next, for making the strap, cut a long piece of 130cm length and 3cm breadth. If you do not have the piece of that length, you can join the small pieces and get the desired length. Prepare the strap and attach it to the main body.

Step 2: Shoulder Bag

For some functions like attending buffet or a wedding, you need a hands free bag rather than a formal bag. Here is what you can do it by making best use of the materials in your cupboard like a dress which does not fit you or your kids. For this, I had cut a outer piece of 30x60cm and a inner piece of plain fabric of same dimensions. To give a shape, I kept the top opning side as 25cm and bottom of 29 cm. After stiching the bag, I attached a strap using 80x4cm piece of outer fabric. If it is not possible to get a piece that long, you can always join the small parts. You can also put a pocket inside bag and zip or welcro to it.

Step 3: A Decorative Hand Bag

This was made from a top which was nearly unused as it did not fit me. The upper part of embroidary piece was taken from the sleeves and lower from back. The straps were made using front part. I have made two pockets inside using the remaining pieces.

Step 4: Silk Handbag

Silk fabrics are costly and sometimes have been made with beautiful prints that you do not like to throw away, even if some part of the cloth gets damaged or torned. I had one such piece and decided to make the best use of it. This was cut into 90x32cm rectangle. The lining for this was of same size and chosen from a thick and stiff material since silk is very thin and delicate. The bag can be stiched with a shape of your liking and imagination and bag in the picture is an illustration. I made the straps using the borders which were nicely woven. For this I used two pieces of 80x5cm dimensions.

Step 5: White Cotton Bag

This bag was made using the sleeves of a cotton top. The sleeves were too long for me and I modified the top by cutting the sleeves to 1/4 of the original size. Now, I had two pieces of cut sleeves which I unstiched and got them together with a contrasting piece of brown color.

Step 6: Raw Silk Bag for Carrying Files

This bag has been made using a 60x38cm raw silk piece. To decorate it further, I made use of the blue ribbons which we get as packing material for gift wraps. This bag is big enough to caryy files or some documents.