Upholstery samples Makeover!

One man's trash is another's treasure right? Well, it is in my world! Upholstery samples take a little work to transform, but you can create some interesting styles with them. Want to see the process?? I just picked up a great upholstery sample pack from The Scrap Exchange in Durham (if you have never been there, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!). I chose this one because the fabric looked interesting (sort of burlap-y) and I liked the color variety.

Don't they look all nice and organized? Oh yes, That's how you get sucked into using them. I do like the end result, but it's some work, ya'll. They are all stitched together (including that paper tag at the top). There are also stickers and staples to remove. I was WAY to impatient to go look for a staple remover, and now my nails are a wreck from this process. But I digress...

Getting everything apart took about 19 minutes. I ended up with 1 27X27 piece of grey, 26 pieces of various colors measuring 8.5 X 6, and 2 small pieces measuring 4.5 X 6. I decided to take the large piece and cut it up so I could fill in between the colors with something of a different size. The smartest way to do this would be to do some simple math and come up with a size that would give me the most pieces, but darn that impatience. I just picked a size I liked and went for it. I had a little leftover, but for eyeballing this thing it was pretty darn close. Next I started blocking out the colors. This was probably my least favorite part, because part of me wants the colors to blend and another wants color reckless abandon. I tried to lay them out without thinking too much. 

I started sewing the blocks together until they formed rows. Although those pieces look like they were all cut perfectly, don't be fooled. There was a lot of trimming going on. After forming rows I simply sewed the rows together.

The result was a usable piece of fabric! While I was sewing these pieces together I wasn't even sure what kind of handbag I was going to make. My most popular bag style is the large messenger, but I was getting a tote bag vibe from this pattern. Once I laid out my pattern I realized I also had enough to do a mid-size messenger bag. Don't judge my ratty pattern pieces! They have a lot of miles on them. I have to recut them a few times a year but I think I can get a few more bags out of them first.

Since I like to recycle as much as I can, I tend to line my handbags with pants. It's a long story of how I got in the habit of doing that, but let's just say necessity is the mother of invention, and my closet got cleaned out one weekend. That picture of the pants shelves below actually shows the organized version (although they look sloppy). I dig through them a lot. I chose this pair of cargo shorts for the tote bag because I liked the trim around the pockets.

For the mid-size messenger bag I chose a pair of cargo pants because I was using the side pockets (and they have two on each side). The rest of the pants can be used for another bag (which will end up with 4 pockets from the top of the pants), so I put that to the side for another bag to be made later. Also, I used fusible fleece for all of the pant pieces for both bags. I didn't use it on the upholstery side - it was sturdy enough.

Hey you know when you are eating cereal and you think you need more milk, then you add it and then you think you need more cereal, and before you know it you've eaten half the box?? Well I was having a similar situation on this project. After cutting these two bags out I still had more upholstery sample fabric, and also left over fabric from the shorts. It was driving me crazy. I hate wasting things that cannot be replaced. I was able to use the butt pockets from the shorts and some of the upholstery fabric to make one of the new belt pocket bags I've started making, but I probably stood there staring at everything for about 10 minutes to come up with that.

The mid-size messenger bag takes an adjustable strap that I make out of upholstery fabric, but for tote bags I use recycled men's belts. They have to be pretty big to start with so that I can cut them in half to get too handles that are long enough that someone can fit their bended elbow through to get the bag on their shoulder (women reading this know exactly what I'm talking about). I grabbed a grey belt, cut it in half cross-wise and then sewed both halves in half (say that over and over fast!) to get my handles. Here's some pictures of the sewing process for the messenger bag below. Notice my "special" tool that helps flatten out the bulky areas before I topstitch. I sew more than I cook, so I really haven't missed having the meat tenderizer in the kitchen!

Check out the finished tote bag here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/507015637/reclaimed-upholstery-sample-and-shorts?ref=shop_home_active_3

Check out the finished messenger bag here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/507016631/reclaimed-upholstery-sample-mid-size?ref=listing-shop-header-2

Check out the finished belt pocket here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/507017189/belt-pocket-reclaimed-from-upholstery?ref=listing-shop-header-2