In the process of painting and reorganizing my sewing room recently I found quite a few things I forgot I had. Among them was a stack of old curtains and curtain tiebacks. Some had been used as curtains fairly recently. Others I've been holding onto for at least 15 years, maybe longer. I kept them thinking I would cut them up and make something else out of them, but never did. The stack takes up quite a bit of room so I decided I needed to use it up or get rid of it.
Over the weekend I made a few tote bags. Since I was using all recycled materials and the pattern is quick and easy, I decided to make Morsbags. Click on the name to go to their website. You can read about them and get the free pattern there.
The first bag was made from a curtain I used in college!
The second bag was made from leftover fabric I was given and made some valances and pillow covers for our playroom. We are still using the valances and pillow covers in the playroom, but I have no other use for the leftover.
Notice the handles on the above bag are not made from the bag material. They are tiebacks from the master bedroom curtains in our previous house. We never used the tiebacks so I just put them in my sewing room. I had actually thrown the tiebacks away and dug them out of my sewing room trash bag for this bag!
I recently (about a year ago) changed the curtains in our living room and dining room. The old curtains are maroon cotton velvet from Target. They are sun-faded in places.
I'm not sure I'll make any more Morsbags out of these curtains. My sewing machine had a really hard time going through more than two layers of this fabrics. The handles are four layers alone. Attaching the handles to the bag was a real challenge because I had to sew through 6 or 7 layers. It does make a really nice bag though. I'll just try a different pattern next time.
So I used almost all of the fabric I had for the first two bags. I have enough left, and already cut, to make handles for a couple more bags. I still have quite a large stack of the maroon curtains though. I believe I bought 12 panels of them! They aren't very wide, but are 84" long. I'd like to find a pattern for which they work well, and then cut them all up into kits. Then I can make them as I have time.
Over the weekend I made a few tote bags. Since I was using all recycled materials and the pattern is quick and easy, I decided to make Morsbags. Click on the name to go to their website. You can read about them and get the free pattern there.
The first bag was made from a curtain I used in college!
The second bag was made from leftover fabric I was given and made some valances and pillow covers for our playroom. We are still using the valances and pillow covers in the playroom, but I have no other use for the leftover.
Notice the handles on the above bag are not made from the bag material. They are tiebacks from the master bedroom curtains in our previous house. We never used the tiebacks so I just put them in my sewing room. I had actually thrown the tiebacks away and dug them out of my sewing room trash bag for this bag!
I recently (about a year ago) changed the curtains in our living room and dining room. The old curtains are maroon cotton velvet from Target. They are sun-faded in places.
I'm not sure I'll make any more Morsbags out of these curtains. My sewing machine had a really hard time going through more than two layers of this fabrics. The handles are four layers alone. Attaching the handles to the bag was a real challenge because I had to sew through 6 or 7 layers. It does make a really nice bag though. I'll just try a different pattern next time.
So I used almost all of the fabric I had for the first two bags. I have enough left, and already cut, to make handles for a couple more bags. I still have quite a large stack of the maroon curtains though. I believe I bought 12 panels of them! They aren't very wide, but are 84" long. I'd like to find a pattern for which they work well, and then cut them all up into kits. Then I can make them as I have time.
2 comments:
That is such a smart thing to do.....love the bags!
Very cool. Way to recycle and upcycle. I bet the faded parts of the maroon ones look cool on your bag! Hmmm...trying to think what else you could do with them....
A dog bed! Or a cat bed! :-) That would use up a lot quickly!
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