A tote bag made only with reused materials

For those who think that doing creative sewing is expensive, here is an example of how you can get original pieces without spending money, just reuse what you already have. This bag was made with reused materials.

I've been wanting to make a bag using scraps of jeans for some time now. I took the box of scraps and separated them by color, sewing the scraps that were the same color until I had strips of fabric measuring around 40 cm.

I placed the strips on a paper measuring 30 * 33 cm and played with them until I got a composition that I liked, I alternated the colors and tried to ensure that the junctions of the scraps were distributed in a way that was pleasing to the eye.

I cut off the excess and sewed the strips onto a piece of fabric, taking care to center the strips so that the final fabric looked nice and each new strip of fabric hid the previous seam. Some people topstitch the strips of fabric but I like it better this way.

I added the leg of some pants to this fabric to make the bag, I wanted to keep the front and back pockets, and since the back of the pants is wider and the fabric had given way because it had elastane, I had to open the side seam to cut off the excess and be able to stretch the fabric nicely.

After putting together the pants and the scrap fabric it was time to think about how to make the bottom, I opted for an oval bottom, the problem was that I had no idea how to know what size bottom to cut.

So I started by deciding what depth of bag I wanted and then I drew on paper and tried the pattern on the bag, I got it on the second try, then I just used the pattern to cut out the bottom.

For the lining I used some leftover sheet fabric that I had at home, I chose to cut three equal pieces and used one of them to make a double pocket, when I went to apply the pocket to the lining I realized that I had made the work more difficult because I had already joined the two lining pieces took a little more work but I managed to bake them without falling apart. In the video I show the correct order to apply the pocket.

It was time to decide what type of closure I was going to use, and as I had a trouser waistband with press buttons I thought it would be a good option, the waistband was small so I had to add a bit of fabric to get the appropriate length.

When applying the waistband to the bag, because it had elastane, it stretched, so in the end I had to cut it a little to avoid having pleats.

Even though I left the belt loops on the pants and the waistband, I ended up removing them because the stitching was brown, I took apart the seams and restitched them, now with blue thread like the one I used on the bag, and put them back on the waistband.

Finally, to finish, I decided to apply a ribbon, this one taken from a chocolate box, to cover the back of the buttons, as the ribbon was too short to make a bow wich was my first thought, I chose to use it to make a keychain, so the keys are always easy to find.

Here's the video of the bag, I hope it serves as inspiration, especially when it comes to reusing materials, there's no need to spend money to get a beautiful, practical and unique piece.

 

Dimensions:

30 cm high, 38 cm wide, 8 cm deep.

Handles: 23 cm

Double interior pocket - 12 cm wide, 18 cm high
 

Price: € 20