Heres to boredom.

Harajuku Peacock Bag

I bought this peacock singlet in Takeshita Street, Harajuku (the shopping district made famous by Gwen Stefani). I loved the embroidery, but being a Japanese ‘one size fits all’, it has never fit me. Naturally, I decided to make it into a bag.

Again, this bag involved either recycled materials, or those I already had: singlet, brown tablecloth ($3 from a local op-shop) and a brown belt (originally 2 for $5 from Jeanswest Clearance) that I’d never worn. Once again (see black hand bag entry, from a few days ago) I used thermal curtain fabric for stability and strength. The zips used I bought in bulk from an op shop around five years ago (I always have hundreds of zips … maybe a bag made entirely of zips is up next …? I’ve seen them done.)

This time I took construction photos, with the intent of demonstrating how I put together some of the tricker aspects: mostly pockets. It is, again, based on JCaroline’s Hobo Bag Pattern.

The best feature of this bag, is the hidden pocket inside the external pocket: it’s not apparent. Why the obsession with hidden pockets? I keep passports, travellers cheques and important documents in them when I travel; they’re hardly secure enough to smuggle dope through customs, or if a thief steals the whole bag; but they will prevent a pickpocket taking anything serious, or a random backpacker quickly searching through your bag from finding the good stuff.

Just to make things more challenging, I put a zip in the top. Not as hard as I’d expected.

If you have any questions, please don’t hestiate to ask.

Again, if there’s anyone making clothing or bags from recycled materials, let me know. I’m also interested in unique approaches to making clothing or bags.

Black Hobo Bag

Inside bag - pen slots, and mobile phone holder.

Basic construction details: there’s four layers: the clear vinyl (from the quilt bag packaging) and the black crepe from the skirt; and the thermal and red satin. Pockets, edged with bias binding, were constructed in the lining before putting together, a hidden pocket using an invisible zip was put into the vinyl in the side front seam, and the lip, where the lining and outer are joined, was edged with bias binding (as opposed to a seam, as the vinyl made turning inside/out very difficult).

Inside bag - zippered pocket. The satin frayed too much so I needed to edge it in the binding. The interiors of the pockets are curtain fabric (white).

The straps are pretty straight forward: black crepe, thermal (for strength), and black vinyl from a cheapo belt I rescued from my mother’s Goodwill bag. I used the buckle from the belt, and a loop from an old backpack instead of the rings. I didn’t do the bow tie as per the pattern as vinyl just doesn’t like to tie. The clasp was improvised from the black vinyl.

Hidden pocket with impossible zip. Intended for hiding passport or other things casual lookers into your purse shouldn't find.

There is an insanely large amount of work here: I wanted something functional, but also something of a challenge. It took a good one and a half days worth of work to put it together. Probably wouldn’t use clear vinyl as an exterior layer again: it’s a pain in the arse to work with. Can’t pin it, so I resorted to using sticky tape (!). Invisible zips should be renamed impossible zips, especially when working with vinyl, in the end I had to hand sew it. The satin is a really nice lining, but all you gotta do is look at and it frays, hence the bias binding everywhere – however, the binding gave it a really nice finished off look which isn’t really in the original pattern. Will use the thermal curtain fabric again: excellent for bag making, solid, sturdy and tough. It works excellently here as an interfacing.

Strap detail - the buckle from the belt. The strap is black vinyl lined with the crepe, so when turned back you see the crepe. A nice detail.

I’m always interested in other’s projects using found objects and recycled clothing: if you’re up to something, leave a link.