Friday, June 06, 2008

An Old Tote - Remake

I've been talking about this wonderful bag of vintage fabric that one our parishoners gave me - and there will be still more about it later...

....but this one very small piece was so pretty that I just had to do something special with it.

I have several of these Thrivent bags - I use them for grocery bags - I don't think the bag boys like it very much because they are sort of small. Here I've used a seam ripper to open up the side seams and remove the top stitching on the set of handles on the front - where the new cover will be...

Then I pinned the pretty fabric face down on the back side of the bag and pinned it in place. Then stitch directly in the bottom fold - this bag didn't have a seam there.

Remove the pins and fold the bag back together - right sides together and re-sew the side seams up to the point of the top-stitching.

Then fold the top of the cover back over the top of the bag and finish the side seams.

Then top-stitch over the new cover.

Then put the straps back in place and reinforce them with extra stitching.

The finished bag - I love it.

fill it with your latest knitting project...

5 comments:

  1. hey, that reminds me of visiting Nanny Gladys and going home with a bag of fabric from the closet in "her" bedroom at Segal's....i still have some of that fabric. i think she enjoyed giving it away.

    glad to see you're putting your's to good use!! love, k

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  2. This project reminded me of Nanny too - remember the big box of yarn and the afghan I started with it 20 something years ago - well - I'm going to finish it this summer...

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  3. That is just gorgeous!

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  4. That is a good idea to cover a good bag with handles already. I still have a few pieces of Nanny's fabric. I should make something with them. E

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  5. That is a lovely idea. I`m gonna have to try it some day as I always collect so many reusable bags for grocery shopping.

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