Indoors

Wardrobe Makeover

Often inundated with useless articles in your wardrobe that you none-the-less just can’t let go of? Indu Harikumar tells us about her little weekend project that transformed an ageing favourite top into an all-new jazzed up accessory in a few simple steps. Here’s where you can take inspiration from to clean up your act

Indu Harikumar

Posted On Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 10:51:31 PM

Would you believe it if I say that this lime green bag was once a tee? A retired tee that I was holding onto because of the beautiful little giraffe on it. A little worn out, a few sequins missing but too dear nonetheless.

So it hid on somewhere in my closet. Then on a cleaning spree, I found it buried in various other things that had no value in their current form. To give away or not to give away was the big question.

Something in my head went “no. No. NO.” Does that sound like a familiar story? Yes? Then join the gang.

Give your old tee a new life
The first step was the simple step of giving the giraffe its missing sequins.

Once restored to its former glory, I sorted out some other loot from my closet and found an unused (and impossible-to-use-again) embroidered cummerbund.

Plus, it seemed like something pretty handy to help restore the tee. Picking it out, I got started.

The loot
1. Green tee
2. Cummerbund
3. Colourful fabric to line the bag with
4. Stiff fabric (unless you want your bag to look limp)
5. A pair of scissors, threads, etc
6. Paper for drafting

Modus operandi
The tee being a medium-sized one, I assumed I could manage to create a bag of about 12.5” x 13”. So I started with drafting a 12.5” x 13” rectangle on a newspaper.

This was very helpful in keeping the final pieces of the same size. There were six pieces — three for the front and three for the back.

One of the three pieces for each side being strips from the tee, and the other two comprising of the stiff fabric and the colourful fabric, which were used to line the bag.

After having cut the six pieces for the bag, I realised that the placement of the giraffe was a bit too high, so I decided to put a band of another fabric on to the top.

So I cut out a band of about 12.5” x 3” and stitched it on top of the tee. This helped the giraffe move down a bit and also gave the bag some more colour.

After stitching the band and the giraffe together, I sewed the three front pieces together, that is the tee, the stiff fabric and the coloured fabric. The same was accomplished with the back pieces.

Now with the front and back ready, I sewed up the sides and finished the top of the bag by folding it in. My cute new bag was almost ready! It was time to figure out the handle.

For the handle, I lined the back of the cummerbund with some bright fabric, leaving two inches of fabric freely flowing on each end. This was then stitched onto the sides of the bag.

And that’s it. The bag was ready. Simple isn’t it? Now, if you don’t have a cummerbund or an old tee, worry not. I’d suggest looking into your wardrobe, diging out any old clothes and giving them a new life.

Here are a few ideas to get started:
Old jeans turned into a bag
Old kurta turned into a bag
Foot print bag with stamp handles

Indu is a children’s writer, illustrator and art teacher. To look up more of her interesting projects, visit http://conversationcompiler.blogspot.com/

	Mail this article Print this article Translate this article	Rate me....
	Share Share Share Share

Contribute/ Share your Opinion

Indoors

Wardrobe Makeover

Contribute/ Share your Opinion

More