Tag Archives: recycled

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.

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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!