Tag Archives: handbag

Fairy Bag

This little fairy flitted around my studio for several years. I intended to put her on a denim vest and never did. Every time she surfaced I tried to put her to use but nothing was ever quite right.

Fairy

Then I remembered this skirt in my upcycle stash:

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And ta da! She had a home. It took me a while and some (ok, lots of) reverse sewing before I landed on the right “moody” feel I wanted for the bag. I was happy to finally utilize some hand-dyed ribbon in my stash as well as the raggedy rose. Once I got rolling it was like she was telling me what she wanted.

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The hardest thing was taking her to the consignment shop!

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I Love to Upcycle!

I love cruising a thrift shop looking for previously loved garments made from fantastic fabrics that I can recycle/upcycle into something new and fun. I found this Bandolino jacket this past summer that had to go home with me:IMG_1697 crop

I loved the fabric and all the details–the tulip sleeves,

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the two front pockets with flaps,

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the covered buttons and all the piping outlining everything. I love this jacket and wish I could wear it! Alas, it’s two sizes too small, so how can I turn this into a fun new bag?

I started ripping seams and realized the sleeve ends turned upside down would make great front and back pockets. Then everything fell into place. This became a very  pocket-centric bag with a total of 8 pockets. I dug into my stash and found some home dec burgundy fabric with woven-in mini stripes and ended up with this:

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The front and back pockets are the sleeve hems:

IMG_1738 crop the side panel pockets are from the back of the jacket:

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I was so happy to be able to keep the original piping intact! (I love piping…) So there are four pockets on the exterior.

I used the two flap pockets from the front of the jacket on the interior as slip pockets with the original pocket hidden under the flap:

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These are the four more pockets to make the total eight.

Finally, I used scraps and a left over button to create the removable flower brooch for the front of the bag:

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This went off to to the The Artistic Attic today to hopefully be adopted by someone who loves the look as much as I do!

Next up–an upcycled denim skirt.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lorraine Slavkovsky

by Lorraine

New Beginnings

With Labor Day, my birthday and the first day of school (back when I was in school!) usually all falling in the same week, this time of year feels like time to start fresh. It was a great summer, I won third place in the Hoffman Challenge accessories division and started selling my work in a local shop!

IMG_1466Meet Serendipity, my Hoffman Challenge entry. I loved this fabric the moment I saw it and knew I had to feature that little “magic carpet” on my bag. I had started in a completely different direction and wasn’t happy with it so when my friend suggested I look at ethnic bags on line for inspiration, I dumped the first concept in a heartbeat and everything fell into place almost effortlessly. I modified “Abigail” from Chris W Designs for size regulations of the challenge and was off having fun. A skirt from a thrift store provided the brass beads, sequins and dangles and I did a lot of surface embellishing. Here’s a few more shots of my “baby”:

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A local consignment shop, The Artistic Attic, was looking for new artists so I took my purses and other accessories in and finally had some success selling! My Etsy store never took off so this is really exciting for me. I love digging around in thrift stores for fabric treasures to recycle/upcycle into new pieces. “Pebbles” is made from a “new” denim skirt (with tags still on it), “new” suede pants (tags still on them) and a child’s two-piece leopard print outfit. It’s so much fun bringing these garments together into a cohesive piece. I was happy with the results and it’s really exciting to have a total stranger buy my work!

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Front                                       Back

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Detail

My “new beginnings” are off to a good start and my only resolution now is to keep the creativity going!

Fabric and Fun in Philadelphia

Two weeks ago I left the “herd” in my husband’s care

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and went to visit my sister in Pennsylvania. She lives near Allentown, but I was flying into Philadelphia so we could go straight to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza  (www.quiltfest.com) in the outskirts of Philly. I had a direct flight (imagine! not going to Chicago on the way to Philly from Cleveland!), was landing at 9 A.M. and we could be at the show by 10. Perfect. Until fog rolled into Philly and my flight was diverted to–you guessed it–Allentown. And sis was already in Philly. Thank heaven for cell phones! Many calls later, it was arranged for me to get off the plane in Allentown, my brother-in-law would pick me up and head to Philly. Sis would head back to A-town. Things were working out. The best thing about this glitch was I got to see this mural in the Allentown airport. Peeps just make me smile!

I felt very welcome indeed!

I felt very welcome indeed!

 Selfishly, the first exhibit I wanted to see was the Hoffman Challenge (www.hoffmanchallenge.com)  to “visit” my handbag, “Moonlit Jewels”, that is part of Hoffman’s 2013 Challenge traveling exhibits.

Moonlit Jewels

Moonlit Jewels

Next post:  Several of our favorite quilts at the show