Two in One

HOW IT STARTED

This project aimed to recycle garments and turn them into something entirely new. I picked two jackets: one was purchased from SHEIN for a work party, which I only wore once. The other was a jacket that I made years ago. That amateur design contained too many details, making it too funky to wear out.

WHAT DO I HAVE?

To have a better understanding of what materials I have, I deconstructed both of the jackets.

FABRIC? YARN?

To minimize the waste and give me more room to create, I quilted the panels in the same colour, cut them into strips, and sewed them into continuous tubes.

Voila, I have balls of “yarn”!

EXPERIMENTS

At this stage, who knows what I am making?

I played around with the materials and made plenty of swatches with different techniques, hoping they would inspire me.

PLAN? SORT OF…

A backpack was the original plan. However, the durability and tightness I want to achieve would use a large amount of material. Also, consider the weight of the bag based on the materials I used – denim and corduroy. I believe it is too heavy to carry over the shoulders. Because of all the above reasons, I changed the design to a clutch purse/basket, which can be used in two ways.

LET’S MAKE IT!

Starting with the bag’s base, I braided some denim strips, knotted them tightly at both ends to avoid sewing, and used them as warp. I then weaved corduroy strips as weft. I made the bag’s body using the crochet technique, starting with corduroy strips and finishing with the SHEIN tubes. As I crocheted using the SHEIN tubes, I decreased one stitch at the corners every round to create a slightly tapered lip. Next, I cut a rectangle of mesh scrap and sandwiched all the scraps, threads, and labels I collected from the process. I created an extension part with the machine embroidery/quilting technique. The cord draw collected from the SHEIN jacket was re-purposed as the bag’s closure. Finally, I attached the extension part to the body with the crochet technique.

AND… TADA!