Upcycling: Making New from Old ~ Drawstring Bag

I haven't made a bag for some time.  I think last items made on the sewing machine were phone pouches about 18mths ago.  I often have ideas in my head or at least aspirations to make things but they do not often come to fruitition.

Hand drawn felt letters

Having enrolled son into Pre-School, I decided to dust off the machine to knock up a little drawstring bag.  They do have nylon material ones available to buy from the preschool for £2 but I thought I would make Minh a special personalised one.  Opening my sewing box full of patterns; fabrics; odds and ends, I came across a scrumpled old work shirt.  I put my creative head on and started planning...
I used the front of the shirt including the button front as it wouldn't be wide enough otherwise.  I just sewed the flaps down after cutting the material so even if the buttons were undone (or fell off) the bag would not open.

Button flaps stitched down in place

The bag needs to hold son's nappies, wipes and nappy sacks as well as a spare change of clothes.  No, we've not toilet-trained him yet.  With this in mind I thought about making a Flat-Bottomed Bag.  The contents could sit at the bottom nicely without tumbling about.

Flat bottom helps bag contents stayin one place!

I had to refer to this book Lisa Lam's Bag Making Bible - to remind myself how to do it.  I love this book as it's got great ideas how to customise bag's you are making to have features that you want as well as some projects for you to tackle.  (Lisa Lam also has a fabulous Bag Making Blog  ~ U-Handblog as well as a shop ~ U-Handbag.com.)

The shirt material is quite flimsy so I gave it reinforcement with some heavy sew-in interfacing and also made a lining from some calico fabric.  I could have made drawstrings from the same material as the shirt but as time was against me, I found some light blue ribbon to thread through as ties instead.

I am really pleased with the bag as the interfacing has made the bag look more substantial, the lining makes it look classy.  The design I think is quite cute and I love how the lettering turned out! 

A label added in last minute!

Cute Curvy Coin Purse

Hi, well I remembered to use my newly made bag to my work's Christmas Karaoke and even made a matching coin purse.  We went to a Chinese All-You-Can-Eat Buffet and wore a blue Cheongsam.  My colleagues were too busy admiring the dress to notice my bag! 

Christmas Karaoke at a Chinese Buffet - Can you spot me?

Ah well......I'm so pleased that they remembered to invite me and we did have a very good time!  I also delivered my first Christmas Cake to a friend as she'd asked me to make one for her - she was pleased!  (I'll show you pics of all my Christmas Cakes later!)

Coin purse has same matching hot pink lining as the Loop Handled Purse

Sew Again - Loop Handled Purse

I've bookmarked this purse tutorial for a while now and even bought the hardware for it.  I had an idea of what fabric I wanted to use too but I heard it's tricky to use as the edges are prone to fraying. 

I love Chinese Brocade fabric.  Maybe it's the oriental in me?  I'd like to think it's silk, but I think I just have the polyester type.  As it's so smooth, slinky and shiny, I thought a similar lining fabric would be appropriate.  So I opted for polyester lining material.  Another slippery contender which frays at a mere stroke. 

Cutting the material wasn't too difficult as the pieces aren't large.  I took my time as this was going to be a Special Going Out Bag.  :0)  I decided I would try prevent too much fraying by using some fusible interfacing on the wrong side of both the brocade and lining.  Idea being 'cos it's stuck to something the edges won't fray?  Worked on the lining and the brocade still frayed a little - might just be the loose strands though.  The pattern uses heavy sew-in interfacing as well which makes the bag lovely and slightly padded.  It means it can be an absolute @*$% to sew 'cos it gets thick in places! 

Still.  It's finished and ready for it's first night out next week.  Am impressed that I'm not working on it minutes before I plan to use it.  I'm rather chuffed with my bag.