I tend to gather odd textiles, last year a friend gave me some white vinyl that he pulled off the interior seats of a 1981 Volvo 240 station wagon. I was not sure what I would do with the fabric but I took the fabric with the though that I would turn it into an outdoor pillow or cover an outdoor chair. The other day I was getting ready to teach a free workshop on reuse. I like to show participants how to make a bag that I found in a free Craftsy class taught by Kristin Link. Kristin ran the website SewMamaSew for several years. In 2015 she started a website called Craft Industry Alliance with another woman. I like to make her bags because they are quick and are perfect for repurposing found textiles. I have used old shirts, jeans and table runners to make these bags in the past.
As I was looking around at all my stray textiles I saw the large bundle of vinyl. It immediately though it looked like the perfect material to reuse for this workshop. I looked at several tops and handles for the bag before settling on a simple black to make this a sleek and modern looking bag. I wanted a bit of color and found a Hawaiian print dress that I had set aside because I really liked the color and the fabric of the material. The dress was cut on a slight bias so the fabric was difficult to lay out and sew together.
The out side of the bag is simple to cut out, I used wonder clips to hold the fabric together instead of pins which make holes in the vinyl. I also used a longer stitch length about 3.5 so that the stitching would not just perforate the vinyl and cause the seams to tear apart.
The biggest problem I had was the interior. Since I used a dress I had issues with some of the fabric that was cut on the bias. It stretched out a little and became a little off shape as I sewed the interior together. I did manage to get it sewn together and I know of these issues are not apparent when you look at the bag.
I like the way the bag turned out and plan to make another one. This time I will cut the interior so that I do not have as many problems with the bias. I have a Hawaiian shirt that I can cut up and this time the fabric is cut on the straight of grain so the lining should be a little easier to sew.
