Anyway, I took these jeans that my son had split whilst ice skating on the school trip to Canberra, (had cut the legs off before I took the photo), and made this shoulder bag from the two back pockets -
It's lined with the spotted fabric and I pretty much just made it up on the fly. Didn't realise until I took the photo that the red stitching ties nicely to the red fabric. That was a happy accident. If I did it again I'd spend just a smidge more time measuring things I think. It was a gift for a 12 year old friend.
And then I used this drawing by my 6 year old nephew (of his mum imagining a birthday cake and then getting one) -
and used a panel from the leg of the jeans to make this cushion as a gift for my sister.
The colours of this delicious Amy Butler fabric that I used on the back dictated the colours of the felt I appliqued on using mainly freemotion machine stitching (pretty dodgy tension actually) and some handstitching. The coloured wool felt was from winterwood. It was fantastic because I could iron it. The white felt is not wool and it's from Spotlight. Wasn't nice to work with at all, but I didn't have any white wool felt. Must remedy that.
There is still some fabric left from these jeans, and it's going back into the stash to reappear another day. I'm loving that one pair of unsalvagable jeans has been repurposed as two gifts that I was very happy to give.
Drop by Kootooyoo for some more creative spaces.
fabulous, Anna, I love your re purposing and particularly that cushion, well done!
ReplyDeleteNice work! I love how the red spotty fabric is visible all the way around. I remember making my first shoulder bag using a jean pocket... and thinking it was the best idea ever :) As for the picture/cushion... that is beautiful! Such a cute pic to be working with ;) And a very faithful reproduction :) I love personalised gifts like that... and I also love winterwood's felt! It's amazing to work with, isn't it? So thick and lovely that it's hard to use the synthetic $1/sheet stuff afterwards... I just wish there was somewhere local to buy it, save a few pennies :) Hope you get your paint mojo back... but in the meantime I'm loving the sewing inspiration as I'm not much of a painter myself ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat creative space Anna! love your denim projects. Very clever. How lucky your sister is to receive such a gorgeous gift! I love kids art work being incorporated in to other useful things(the little folk here, M, D & S now use my melamine artwork plate created when I was about 9). Thanks for sharing again. xx
ReplyDeleteNow that is being creative! Fantastic job.
ReplyDeleteNext time you're in Canberra, you must visit Shop Handmade, it's a designer collective full of incredible creations from around Australia. Happy travels & enjoy that bag!! Love Posie
ReplyDeleteAnna, your cushion is awesome, what a brilliant reproduction of the real thing too. Thanks so much for sharing.
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