Thursday 11 April 2013

Tutorial Thursdays - Guest Post - Skirt Upcycling


Welcome back to Tutorial Thursdays on Marigolds' Loft.
Today I am honoured to have Vicky over for a visit.
She is going to share a wonderful tutorial with you on how to upcycle a skirt into a bag. Take it away Vicky :)

Upcycling a cord skirt into ladies shoulder bag, complete with appliquéd butterfly design :)


Let’s start at the beginning with the skirt, which measures 44cm waist by 57cm long. It is designed with a lace finish at the bottom of the skirt, with pleats.

I am aiming to complete the bag from the skirt, with a second fabric for lining, in this case using a former cotton duvet cover.

After some thought, I have decided to keep the lace at the bottom, and the pleat which I love. I did debate turning the skirt upside down and having the lace at the top, I decided against this as the lace did not line up neatly if I recreated the pleat at the bottom.

up-cycling skirt to bag

  • Remove the waistband and zip, and retain both for reuse when making the bag.

Straps:
  • Measure the skirt to work out the options for dimensions. I prefer shoulder straps which are at least 52cm long and 4cm wide, plus seam allowance… my skirt is only 50cm.
  • Decide on measurements. In this case I have measured in 9cm from the top of the skirt and cut down to enable four strips of fabric 9cm wide to create the straps. I will join two pieces together to create long enough straps. If the skirt is longer you will only need two pieces of fabric 9cm wide.



  • Create the shoulder straps. Cut your fabric .If necessary join the pieces to together to create two pieces of fabric 55cm by 9cm. Iron on interfacing 53cm by 8cm to each piece: this will strengthen the straps.
  • Fold the fabric in half and fold in the seams (1cm seam allowance).
  • Stitch both sides of the straps, to add strength.

Bag
  • Cut the remaining fabric into two equal sized pieces of fabric, remembering to allow seam allowance, to create the body of your bag. I cut off some of the depth from the top of main body of the skirt to create two pieces of fabric

Add any decoration you wish. I have added an appliquéd butterfly. Firstly I researched appliqué images on line, and then sketched out a design. I then traced this onto the paper side of bondaweb. Then I ironed the bondaweb onto appliqué fabric, and cut out desired shape, placed onto bag, and ironed on. I used a tight zigzag stitch stitch around all raw edges.




  • Sew up the three seams, right side together, leaving the fourth seam along the top open, creating the main body of the bag. Finish the seams as you like (I suggest a zigzag stitch on the raw edges)


Lining
  • Cut fabric the same size as the bag fabric, allowing a seam allowance. Due to the pleat in the bag I have cut my fabric to the width at the top, and width at the bottom, so that I do not have pleats and pockets on the lining to contend with.
  • If you would like internal pockets create them now. In this bag I have included a simple pocket. Hem a piece of fabric to the size of required pocket. Place on the fabric (I always measure to ensure it is in the middle of the bag and parallel to the top of the bag). Sew around the three pocket sides, with the fourth seam left open as the opening to the pocket at the top.

Joining all parts of the bag together:

  • Measure the waistband to fit the main body of the bag.
  • Insert magnetic clasp into the middle of each side of the waistband

  • Measuring from the centre unpick part of the waistband seam to insert the strap. I unpick 5cm of the waistband per strap equa distance from the magnetic clasp. On this bag the straps have 18cm between them (the clasp in the middle at 9cm)

  • Place the lining inside the bag, wrong sides together. Pin and tack the lining and the body of the bag along the top.

  • Tack the right side of the waistband onto the top of the bag, right sides together.

  • Sew the waist band on

  • Stitch the two sides of the waistband together.


Finally stitch the other side of the waistband on the inside of the bag, tucking the seam allowance into the waistband. I always tack this first too :)

Brilliant and congratulations one finished bag :)

Vicky Myers Creations, selling handmade recycled bags, is born out of a need to be creative, and a love that I've had all my life of preserving the environment. 

I have always made, inspired by our wonderful world, creation is constant and yet changing. Over the years this has involved textile three dimensional wall hangings, photography and handmade cards. But with children arriving I struggled for a few years to find a creative outlet which I could pick up and put down, around the demands of having a family. During this time I learnt to knit… but now I am far more excited to be tapping into my interest in conserving the environment, with my creativity to make bags…

I'm loving the fact former clothes can be upcycled into new creations, and the fact each product can be either half made, or fully made in a toddler nap slot!!! I do not need 5+ hrs in one go to engage my creativity!

Since starting my business I have enjoyed the steep learning curve, creating an Etsy shop, blog, joining twitter, a whole new world. Along the way I have been delighted with people’s generosity with constructive feedback and assistance.

Blessed with a gift of creativity I feel it is important to develop and appreciate it:) My focus is creating beautiful recycled bags out of old clothes. 

You can find Vicky on:


Thank you for the opportunity to guest blog for you:) Any queries please do message me:)

best wishes,

Vicky


Thank you so much Vicky for this creative post, it was a pleasure to have you over :)

Now it is your turn....

Thank you to all who linked up last week.
The most visited links (Well, the only links visited :( ) were these two great crafts:

An Evening Purse by E Strea Chikitu

And this awesome Fabric Flip-Flop Tutorial by Katie @ the Crafty Blog Stalker

Well-done ladies and thank you for sharing your wonderful Crafts with us all.
I have pinned your crafts on the PinBoard and added them to the Tutorial Thursday Album on my Facebook Page :)

You will also be featured in this weeks Newsletter

(If you have a Facebook Page or account, I would very much appreciate a share :))

Don't forget to grab your button if you haven't done so already :)


”Marigolds
Please feel free to link up your crafts below.

They do not have to be tutorials, I would love to see any crafts.

I understand that the point of linking at a party is to gain exposure and share your goodies, but please stay a while and visit some of the other links available. 

I love hosting the Linky Party, but it would be so much more fun for everyone, if all of you, would take a couple of minutes to visit at least 2 other links below. 
We all appreciate visitors and comments, so please be so kind and do so.

Rules for the Linky Party:
  • Be a Follower of Marigolds' Loft, this is not a MUST, but I would appreciate it :)
  • Grab my button below and showcase it somewhere on your blog OR create a visible link.
  • Do not Link if you are selling something. 
  • Be sure to only link the relevant Blogpost and not your whole blog.
  • Please be so kind and visit at least 2 other posts linked below, it is always nice to receive visitors, this is a linky party after all! :)
  • In linking below you are giving me the permission to use of your image if it is being featured the following week. If I am unable to use your image I can unfortunately not feature you.
  • Please do not link up stuff you have already linked up before!
  • Please note: I will remove content that does not abide by the rules mentioned above. 
Marigolds' Loft



11 comments:

  1. This is a great idea! I have a few skirts this would work well with.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the idea of using some of my old skirts for bags. I hope I can find one in a sturdy enough fabric for something like this. That bag is so cute!

    Thanks for hosting the link party :)
    ~Kaitlin

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for hosting!! I'm early linking up but I'll be back tomorrow to see what projects people have been working on :-)

    Hannah ♫
    Sew Lah Tea Dough

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks you for hosting and featuring my evening bag.
    I love the flip-flops too!
    And your tuto is great aswell, have a nice day :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm a new follower (on Google+). Thanks for hosting :)

    Angela
    www.ATypicalEnglishHome.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you for featuring my Fabric Flip Flops! You have made my day!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just found you today and linked up ~ thanks for hosting. I also left a few comments :)
    ~ Megin of VMG206

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've made bags from jeans but not from skirts, which is even nicer. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting my site and leaving a comment, I really appreciate each and every one.
I will reply to each of your comments, sometimes it does take a while to get around to all of them, but I will reply within 24 hours of you posting. :)

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