Now to what I have been up to in the last couple of weeks. I needed a birthday present for my son and I had this dark grey jumper made from boiled wool that I accidentally felted in the washing machine. It was a bit old and had a little hole in the front so no harm done by overzealous washing. I wasn’t particularly fazed. I thought a messenger bag would find favour with my son. I didn’t work to a particular pattern. It had to fit at least A4 so I set about figuring out with a tape measure how to get all necessary parts cut from the jumper, front and back, side and bottom panel, strap and the flap. I didn’t want to buy anything new so more things from the house were repurposed.
The bag lining is an old black linen skirt; the lining for the flap and the strap an old red cashmere mini-skirt; all reinforcements I made with an old roll of waist shaper iron-on that my mother once wanted to give away because she said she would not make waist bands anymore, I protested and kept it; the main zip is from an old black boot of mine; ...
... the small side pocket zip from said linen skirt; the cat charm on the main zip my son once found in a wooden box from a skip; and the strap sliders are from an old, tatty bag I bought from the Salvation Army shop. Charity shop acquisitions were allowed because they are second hand stuff.
I also needed electricity for the sewing machine and the iron (yeah, don’t forget you use energy while recycling, nothing much comes zero carbon) and of course some fabric glue, thread and the usual sewing tools. In short, I didn’t buy anything on the high street, I'm very pleased about that, though the day will come when new fabric glue and thread etc. need to be bought, of course.
My son was pretty chuffed, though perfectionist as he is, he allowed me to do some small corrections to do with the main zip. Don't look, you can't see it on the photos.
Karin