Reclaimed Retrobellish Purses
The following articles feature stylish purses made from reclaimed materials. These reclaimed purses were each featured blog posts in recent years. Each article describes the purse in an introductory paragraph followed by a link to the rest of the article including additional pictures.
Make Your Own Recycled Fabric Knitted PurseIt all started when I watched a craft show about knitting with fabric. The show featured a lady who sewed a simple summer dress in a smooth beautiful floral colored cotton fabric. The beautiful summer dress had an empire waistline, and although the top portion of the dress was fashioned in a tube top style, it had the most beautiful braided-like texture, and it tied at the shoulders with thin straps. The lady explained that she had created this beautiful texture by knitting it with strips created from the same floral fabric. I couldn’t believe how beautiful the dress looked. I immediately knew that I wanted to try this technique, although it would probably be on a smaller scale, and I came up with the idea of a small knitted purse.
White Crocheted Pearl Purse
Just when I thought I couldn’t find any other type of fiber thread to crochet with, I found this Twisted Mason’s String Line in many colors at our local home improvement store. One of the pros I liked about this nylon string is that it’s very strong and lends itself to making very strong crochet pieces such as purses and straps. Other great qualities about this string is that it’s so soft to the touch and crocheting with it creates a great thick texture and an incredible satin sheen. It’s also waterproof.
Reclaimed Fabric Paris Theme Purse
This small evening purse was made from the reclaimed fabric of a bridesmaid dress that I know I’ll never wear again. In the past, I’ve donated bridesmaid dresses, but there were only a few that I just couldn’t part with because the dress fabric was so beautiful. I saved these dresses, took my time taking them apart, saving the zippers, buttons and fabrics. As a big fan of all things Paris, I decided that I would use this beautiful pink silky fabric to make a Paris themed purse. The first thing that came to mind was the Eiffel Tower, so I decided to make an Eiffel Tower of sequins. I really didn’t know how this would turn out, but thought I’d give it a try.
Cigar Box Folk Art Purse
Cigar box purses were once very popular and a great way to reuse these great boxes made out of wood or chipboard that could be used for a multitude of craft projects from jewelery boxes to purses. We used some of these for a lot of our folk art projects where we painted city and farm scenes on the boxes. The box featured here is an abstract rendition of our city of Chicago’s famous landmarks. And although this purse was used as folk art, some of our other pieces were functional purses lined inside with velour fabric and a small mirror.
Reclaimed Fabric Mini Doll Dresses
I was going through my fabric remnant box and found some very pretty small swatches that would make very pretty doll clothing. The black fabric had a nice draping quality to make a doll size little black dress. The bright pink satin fabric swatch was a bit larger so it lent itself for making a doll size fancy ball gown. Both fabric swatches were from old dresses of mine that I thought I’d one day use to make a scarf or other accessory.
I had a very pretty old doll and I thought it would be nice to make two new dresses for the doll. I held the fabric against the doll and determined that there was enough fabric to make both dresses. I used some scrap paper, traced and measured the doll’s current dress and added a 1/8″ seam allowance. I cut out the pattern, making adjustments and pinned the pattern to the fabrics. After cutting out both fabrics, I machine sewed the main segments, and preferred to hand sew the rest of the smaller pieces together.
In a small box of my remnant trims, I found a pretty cream colored pearl trim that was small enough in scale to trim the black dress. I hand sewed the pearl trim around the waist and neckline of the little black dress. I had a bit of the black fabric left over so I sewed a little black purse by folding the fabric onto itself and hand sewing the edges. I then hand sewed a tiny little piece of pearl trim in the center of the purse.
Later, I found a small skein of silky cream colored yarn that matched the shade of the trim on the dress, so I decided to crochet a little shawl for the little black dress.
The pink dress was totally different in style but also fit the doll nicely. I also crocheted a small shawl for this dress using black embroidery floss, and although it took quite some time, I added a fringe to this tiny shawl using the same embroidery floss. So from time to time, take a look through your remnants and leftovers because they may surprise you and inspire a new creation.
Baby Shower Corsage
I have always enjoyed making baby shower items such as centerpieces, umbrellas and corsages using reclaimed items. I was inspired to make this baby shower corsage by looking at pictures of beautiful natural flower corsages. Since I didn’t know the baby’s gender, I decided to use neutral light colors in all the materials I chose. I looked in my craft box and found remnants I had left over from other projects. I had a cream colored silk flower, a small piece of lacey trim, a small piece of white tuling, a few swatches of soft flannel fabric, a small pierced wooden bead for the head, leftover piece of interface and a strand of white ribbon.
I started by making a base. I cut an oval shape from a sturdy piece of interface, and then cut a slightly larger oval shape from flannel fabric, then repeated and cut out a second oval shape from the remaining flannel swatch. I placed the interface piece in between the two oval flannel pieces and sewed around the edges to seal the interface inside. I then sewed the tuling and lacey trim remnant all the way around the edge of the base, which softened the look of the base. For a little more texture and color, I cut two small round pieces of flannel–one in pink and one in blue and placed these place behind the flower.
I then cut flower petals from a cream colored silk flower, cutting as close to the flower’s base as possible. I assembled the petals in piles according to their size. I placed a large flower petal in the upper center part of the base and hand sewed it onto the base. I then continued sewing the larger petals to either side of the center petal. I continued sewing the next size petals in layers until I formed a pretty floral shape.
I painted a little face on the wooden bead using craft acrylic paints. While the paint dried, I wrapped a little shape of flannel fabric into a little roll and sewed the edge to seal the tiny bundle. I then took the painted wooden bead and sewed the bead into one end of the little flannel bundle. I sewed a tiny lacey remnant on the flannel around the head. Next I pulled the sewing needle through the center flower petal, through the base, and through the baby bundle several times to anchor the bundle. I then sewed the rest of the flower petals around the baby bundle until it looked like the baby bundle was enclosed inside of the flower. I then made a ribbon bow and sewed it onto the bottom of the corsage. I was very pleased with the outcome and the mother-to-be really enjoyed wearing it. Although I used leftover remnants, you can use your imagination to make your own special piece.
Reclaimed Fabric Gift Wrapping
This project is one that I personally have made for many years. The use of reclaimed fabric is one that lends itself for many reclaimed craft projects. In this project I used this soft light flannel as gift wrapping for a Baby Shower, then I used a beautiful pink and blue satin ribbon from a roll that I found in a clearance bin. In the past, I have also used a receiving blanket as wrapping paper around a small gift, making sure that all the ends are gathered on the top center of the gift, then pulled the gathered blanket ends through a rubber band and spread them out through the rubber band to resemble a flower. For even smaller gifts, a cloth diaper or small baby bath towel can be used as well. So just have fun and find some fun fabric to wrap your next baby shower gift.
Pears On Branch Paper Relief
This whimsical relief of pears on a branch is made of scrap paper, recycled cardboard and plaster. About ten years ago, I had bought a similar relief of pears on a branch in solid plaster that I keep on display in my kitchen and which was the inspiration for this project.
I started out by useing a recycled heavy piece of cardboard as a base. To make the pear shapes, I crumbled paper scraps into tight pear-shape balls and glued them to the cardboard shape. I then rolled more paper scraps into long narrow shapes to form the branches and glued them around the pear shapes.
Once all of the paper shapes were glued in place, I used a plastic knife to apply a thin coat of plaster over all of the paper shapes and the cardboard base. Once the first plaster layer dried, I smoothed out a few rough spots with sandpaper, then applied another layer of plaster. Once the plaster completely dried, I started painting the relief with acrylic paints.
Last but not least, I cut leaf shapes from thin cardboard and applied a thin coat of plaster over each leaf. Once the light coat of plaster completely dried, I painted each leaf using the same acrylic paints.
I used a wood frame for the relief that we made from scrap wood pieces that we cut and mitered to the size of the Pears On Branch Paper Relief. And although I used pears as a subject on this relief one could make one out of your favorite fruits or vegetables. So just have fun and create your very own piece of art.