A bag made from curtains!

What do you do if you have a pair of curtains that you love but unfortunately, are past their sell by date? Answer? Make them into a shoulder bag! This is what we were tasked to do by my friends mum for her birthday. The curtains were faded where the sun had bleached them, so it took us a while to figure out which bits to cut out! We wanted to replicate the pattern on both sides of the bag with a single poppy being central to the design. Then I was let loose with my free-motion! 

We cut out extra leaves and flowers and used bondaweb to stick them over the pattern that was already there. Then I free-motioned the outlines in grey, as well as the veins for the leaves etc. Grey is a lot more forgiving than black! We even free-motioned three little leaves which we then used to embellish the little pocket that the bag has on the inside. The handles are simply folded in half and stitched - though I did break a needle in the process! I had changed to a denim needle but hadn't realised the needle didn't fit right up into the needle holder - sometimes cheap sewing needles aren't always the bargain they seem!

The curtain material was quite difficult to cut out etc as it seemed to move around all on its own! You'd spend ages drawing a straight line and then when you went to draw the next straight line, the line you'd just drawn looked more like the rocky mountains! We got there in the end though. The telling time is when you slip the lining inside the outer material....if the two don't fit, then you really have a problem. We both heaved a sigh of relief when the two matched up without the need for any gathering - this was more by luck than judgement!

We then used a few stitches at the bottom of the bag, to secure the lining to the outer material and keep it in its place.

We love the bag and the little details on it, even though it took an absolute age to make! We think it's very special and we hope my friend's mum thinks so too.

I think we're making a habit of this but it's a good habit - no unpicking again!!!