Floral Linen Handbag
Shabby Duck Designs£58.00
£58.00
£25.00
£25.00
£18.00
£28.00
£15.00
£12.00
I'm Eleanor and I make bags and other accessories from upcycled textiles at my home in Stockport.
Making bags has become a bit of an obsession! I am self-taught and have never used an actual pattern - I create my bags using the techniques I've learned, and I am constantly learning something new.
My other obsession is avoiding waste and not feeding the demand for short-lived 'new stuff', so I now make my bags as much as possible from pre-existing textiles: things that are too worn or damaged to pass on but still with enough usable good-quality fabric in them. For example, duvet covers and sheets, curtains, old jeans, items of clothing that can't be repaired, all items which would otherwise end up in landfill.
Of course this means each bag is unique, although sometimes I can make two or three smaller items from the same piece of fabric.
I love looking at a shirt or a pair of trousers and wondering what would be the best kind of bag to make from it. I admit I am sometimes tempted by an exceptional charity shop find: the photo shows a bag made from a man's shirt from a charity shop - I would argue that it looks better as a bag than it did as a shirt!
I sew in a very small box room, just enough room for me, my machine and the mountains of preloved items waiting to be transformed!