Turn an old ripped skirt into handbag

In life you often come across things that you love so much you hang on to it whatsoever. I had a short checkered skirt that was altered from a long skirt because it was stained by some green paint, which I had worn from mid 90's till 2009, when I noticed a hole on the back of it. I had no idea how it got there but it is definitely not mendable. I was devastated as it was one of my favourites, and I certainly can't make it any shorter!

Last worn on 3 April 2009, Lee on Solent

Stubborn as I am, I refused to throw it away just yet. So I decided to make a bag out of it. The actual process of making it was not that long, but it was the waiting for the right material to come along. My sister passed me some old straps she took from her old ripped travel bags so I used some to make the straps, as well as the horizontal line pattern by the straps.

The bottom piping was made by wrapping fabric from an old t-shirt (that was waiting to become a cleaning cloth) around an old cord off a broken iron (the cord was given to be by a friend). The black flowers, one of which is to hide the ripped hole, are from my craft material collection.


I tried looking for an old/used black or white zipper that is long enough for the bag, but failed. There isn't any shop near me that does these stuff and I didn't want to make a trip down town just to get a zipper. So this project has been abandoned for a while. 6 months later, I managed to get one when I walked pass a shop that sells sewing material whilst I was running an errand down town. That costs me 60 sen (12p/20¢), and I thought that's fair enough.

At least I don't have to part with my favourite skirt for now.

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