Denim Bag Eco

 I had leftover dead stock denim from sewing Mr W's brown shopping bag. I don't like to hoard scraps, especially denim. It was chocolate brown, I used the reverse for the lighter shade. The lining was from a 2nd hand bundle, dark green to me is "school jumper" so again I used the reverse, now it looks camouflage.

 I ran out of clothes to recycle, and I wanted to make 2 bags simultaneously to save prep work time, so I used another deadstock denim for the grey, which I had in the attic.

I interfaced the straps, top, bottom, and top of lining pockets with light interfacing to prevent stretch. Topstitching and edge stitching in brown.

Recycle - Denim Shopper

2 x Mr W's old jeans (grey and charcoal, 2 x 2nd hand cotton placemats and 2 x cotton 2nd hand napkins for pocket linings, 2nd hand cotton for bag lining. 

I interfaced the handles, bag and top of pockets. As I was using jeans, I had to cut the bag outer in 2 parts with a seam allowance and piece. I topstitched the handles in charcoal Gutermann thread and medium grey for the bag.

I edgestitched the bottom where the box corners meet, but pressed the sides down for a softer look. 

Mr W is going to take this to the craft fair for handmade shopping!

Storage Packs

I made two cotton canvas storage bags the same in the size large. This size fits fat quarters bundles!

Useful and reliable basket weave cotton from Minerva for review - thank you. Both sides of this fabric are pretty similar, so you can make bags without linings, then just bind the raw edges inside, or outside as per the pattern, if preferred.

I didn't have soft and stable, so I used light interfacing for the grey pieces. Instead of a mesh lid, I cut 2 of the bottom panel for each bag.

The lining is seersucker I purchased 2nd hand "1960s/1970s.

I used zip tape and fastened on the endings myself, firstly, a 36-40 inch metal zip is £10 each and secondly, I wanted to make a few bags in different sizes, including navy blue packing cubes for my friend who loves outdoors.

I added a folded in half square of grey canvas as an overlap to the end of the zip, as I cut them too short (pattern advised to hang the zip off the end of the bag, and I had cut the zip tape exact).

There is a video for instructions but I didn't use it as I've made a lot of purses and tote bags, and many bindings!

Now to decide which pattern to use for the remainder of the fabric! It could be anything, craft or clothing.

I used yellow and grey print Art Gallery Fabric poplin for the binding.