Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Tote bag make over & Happy St. Patricks Day!

 
A couple of posts ago I showed some flowers I made from fabric strips. I put one on my purse and looked around for other things to do with them. I found this nice tote bag at a thrift store for 75 cents. Its burlap, backed with a flexible water proofing. Very sturdy, built to carry pottery apparently. I don't like the big knots on the inside handles, and I want a pocket that its safe to carry money in.
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Here is a pic of the handles with knots:Photobucket

My first task was to hide the words so I applied some flowers that I had already made, next, how to close up the pocket? Memere's zipper box came to mind and I found this big old metal zipper and hand sewed it to the flap. It wasn't long enough but left just enough room for a custom cellphone pocket. And see the bright green on the right? That is some giant ricrack that I really wanted to use for handles, but you can see it is the wrong color (when returned to Joann's I brought a piece of fabric).

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There was no giant rickrack in a suitable color, but my dh actually found what I used. I wanted something flat so I could sew the ends together on the inside rather than having knots. A bonus is that I can gather 2 loops from inside to shorten the handle length (instead of shoulder length)and carry in my hand without dragging on the ground. The only thing left to do was disguise a small stain near the top. I did this by stenciling my initials. I cut a vinyl stencil on my cutting machine at work and then stenciled it during my Art Club last nite (9 of us this week!) I was going for a typewriter key look. Here is the finished product. Ready to go shopping on foot carrying everything I need and purchases too.
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I'm linking up to Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts. Be sure to check out the other projects here!

I'm also linking to Tea Rose Home's new link party featuring crafty creations! Check them out!

Kathy

14 comments:

  1. Good job. I like it. Sounds like a good turnout at art club.

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  2. This is so cute. How did you make the flowers?

    Feel free to stop by my blog and enter my necklace giveaway!

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  3. That is so cute! I'm not a tote person but I would certainly carry that! Way cool.

    Thanks for visiting junkblossoms. We love company and hope you'll come back soon. Pat.

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  4. Hi thankyou for commenting. I posted a link within the above post to my fabric flower post.
    Kathy

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  5. That is super cute!

    Thanks for the comment about my blocks! I think your idea is great and if you ever do, please oh please send me a link because I would love to see how it turned out. The only problem that I had with it is that I'm making the blocks have the colors of the season, so if you have shared ones that could get tricky. But I love that idea I really appreciate that you came up with it, I'm so impressed that you came up with that on the spot, wow!!!

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

    Kaysi
    Keeping It Simple

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  6. I love it! Looks great with the flowers(:
    ~Rebekah

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  7. That is a great find - the bag has great structure - so glad you found a way to repurpose it! :0

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  8. You really transformed that bag. You are much more crafty than I!

    Happy St. Patrick's Day ~ thanks for visiting me.

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  9. wow!! it turned out really pretty!! love the greens on the tan!!

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  10. Hi Kathy, thanks for leaving a comment on my mod podge pendant!!
    This bag makeover is so cool. I love the flowers on it and how you cleverly disguised the logo... Must check how you made them...

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  11. So clever, love the way it turned out!

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  12. I like the flowers, and the stenciling...
    I have been wanting to make some flowers like yours...may be today is the day!

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  13. How cute! I love the flowers, you did such a nice job!

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Thank you so much for leaving a message. I really appreciate it!
Gracias para dejar un commentario. Me gusta mucho!
Kathy