Skirt on my back

 

When I came across this skirt at a thrift store I thought back to some pretty totes I’d seen beautifully made by the talented blogger Saidos da Concha.  I scooped up the floor length pleated kilt-type skirt (it’s a tiny lady’s skirt) and set it aside for a bit.

I picked the skirt up after a month and thought I’d have a stab at ripping it apart to give me some useable material for crafting.  I ripped and ripped, pulled threads and on and on it went.  I was going nuts with it all.  It ended up taking about half a day to rip this skirt apart, but there was a lot of material on that skirt!  Since I was well over the skirt by then I thought I’d throw the repurposed material in the washer to get the thrift store funk off of it.  Mind now, this material is 100% wool and I was a bit reckless because  I was kind of sick of looking at the darn stuff.  If it went wrong, oh well.  Turns out that skirt washed up just fine.  I even threw it in the dryer for about 5 minutes.  I know!  But wet wool smell is not pretty and I’m a gambler.  So now what to do with this clean wool plaid?  Tote, clutch, pouches?

I came across this Leisl backpack tote pattern and thought I’d give it a try.  I used some stash remnants for the lining and only had to buy the hardware and interfacing.  Not a bad use for the repurposed skirt, no?

The sewing of the bag isn’t hard, it’s just fiddly.  I don’t like fiddly sewing.  This is all about the fiddly.  But I persevered and put my newly tuned up Bernina to the test sewing through about nine layers of fabric.  No worries, my Bernina is a star.

So now I’ve got a “tote that converts to a backpack” or “how to wear a skirt on your back without getting stared at in public”.  Good times.

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