Tutorial: How I Made a Bag from a Jacket

A Jacket + An Idea = A New Bag

As I promised, today I'm showing how I made a bag from a jacket you saw in my previous post. The bag is not hard to make and does not require a lot of skills, so don't hesitate to make it even if you never made a bag before! So, let's move on to the tutorial :)

Tutorial: Cosmetic Bag

Before I started making bags I used to have only one bag at the time. Now, when I have several, I often switch them depending on occasion/outfit. Changing bags regularly is not a big problem for me though, because I usually carry just a few things in my bag. Yet I have a couple of items I usually forget to transfer and miss during the day, like a lip balsam, a lipstick or a pack of gum. Therefore, I decided that I need a small cosmetics bag for all the necessities.

Since I wanted it to match every bag that I own, I went with black fabric + black faux leather and classic shape for this cosmetics bag. And here is the result:

It's small, but fits a lot: you can see a lipstick, a lip balsam and a small perfume bottle inside and the are still plenty of room left!

Tutorial: How I Make Basic T-Shirt

So, I’d like to show you how I make my T-shirt. I hope it will be helpful if you (like me) don’t have a serger and have to make the best with what you have – the very simple sewing machine. Note that the actual tutorial is really short, but I wrote many tips so now it looks harder than it should ;D

Tutorial: Re-fashioned Cardigan

A quick tutorial on re-fashioning a simple cardigan (admit it, we all own at least one!) by turning it into a short-sleeve cardigan with a braid along the neckline.

I actually liked this cardigan the way it originally was, but the quality wasn't the best and sleeves were falling apart, so I decided to fix it and here is the result:

Tutorial: The Day Bag. Assembling

We're continuing making the day bag as seen  here . By now you should have finished making the pattern as shown in the tutorial part 1 (see here)

In this final part we are going to assemble the bag.

Tutorial: The Day Bag. Pattern making

As promised - the tutorial for the day bag you saw here. 

This is Part 1. In the part I'm going to show you, how to make a pattern. I've talked about pattern making here , but I know it might still sound confusing. Don't worry - I'll show you all the steps :)


Step 1. Draw the detailed bag sketch, try to be as accurate as possible: try to keep all the proportions the way you want to see them on the bag, draw the hardware if you are going to use it. Draw the front and the side. If you're making a different back of the bag, draw it too (the back on my bag is simply all-leather, without any details, so I didn't draw the back).

Tutorial: Fit a sweater or T-shirt

Hello Sweethearts!

Today I’d like to share with you one tip – how to make a sweater that’s too big fit just right.

I’m probably the only person I know who can’t wear oversized clothes, because… they don’t fit me! I don’t know why, actually. Maybe they don’t suite my figure; maybe they just don’t look right; maybe they just don’t feel right. Anyway, with today’s fashion it’s hard to find well-fitting clothing (not to mention that mass production cannot fit everyone), but with basic sewing knowledge it’s quite easy to adjust clothing to your figure.

Today I’ll show you how I fitted a sweater that I found in a thrift store a while ago. It was a bit oversized, but the fabric was lovely, so I bought it. Unfortunately, the more I wore it, the more oversized and ill-fitting it looked. Then one day I decided to make it fit.

Tutorial: Braided Shirt

Hello!

Well, I know this blog is called "Bags you can make", but I must admit, I also make other stuff :D  So today I'm showing you the braided shirt I made a couple of years ago. Since it's one of those rare times that I didn't use a pattern, I decided to make a tutorial for you, so that you can make one yourself!

Starting with the photos of the finished garment:

Tutorial: Backpack

Hello Everyone!

As I promised in my previous entry, I made a tutorial as soon as got my sewing machine back. So here it is! 

Firstly, a short history. Backpacks are considered to be for pupils only. Well, I wanted a backpack! I didn't want it to look like a backpack for school, so I made it from white linen (actually, I cut linen pants :D ), medium size and very minimalistic.

Before going to the tutorial part, lets see what are we going to make: