Making a patchwork Jeans tote bag
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Hello from a windswept Yorkshire. Hope you have all come through the recent storms ok. Today I am writing about a project that has really been a long time in the making. I think it began around November 2020 and although I am usually really good at finishing things, somehow this one dragged its heels in the sewing room. I am not sure why, but I think it was because I finished the front of the bag and was completely at a loss as to what to do for the back…but I am getting ahead of myself. The inspiration was a really lovely book called ‘The Lost Lights of St. Kilda’ by Elisabeth Gifford. It’s a fictional story rooted in the actual history of the tiny island archipelago of St. Kilda in the Outer Hebrides and has beautiful and vivid descriptions of the island landscapes and life in such an isolated outpost. It is a charming love story with a dual timeline, 1927 and 1940 set amidst real life events, when the islanders were forced to evacuate in 1930. I loved the book and the real life story too. It is said that when they had to leave their island homes, the natives of St. Kilda left an open bible and a small pile of oats in each house before locking their doors and boarding the ship which would take them to new lives on mainland Scotland.
It so happened that about the time I was reading this novel, I was also given a bunch of off cuts from old jeans and I was thinking about what to do with them. I had seen lots of inspiring instagram photos of lovely bags made from patchwork denim and thought this was a rather like the starry skies over St. Kilda. Teaming the denim up with some of V & Co.’s metallic confetti material in dark blues and golds and icy whites seemed like a good idea and I set about planning what to do.
I decided on ‘crazy patchwork’ which suits the informal style of denim, but also really allows for some embroidery and other embellishments such as sequins. I made a central star from a free foundation pieced pattern (link below). I think stars are probably one of my favourite motifs, being a winter girl an’ all.
Using the denim and also some velvet and wool scraps, I started layering the crazy patchwork. I also thought it was rather appropriate to add in some tweed fabric. The islanders used to eek out a living selling some of their homemade tweeds fabrics to tourists who docked in the harbour and I had some scraps of dark navy Harris tweed which blended in just perfectly. Gradually I built up a rectangle using all the bits and pieces. It is interesting to place all the scraps around the star and just keep building up the textures. It is relatively quick to do too and so in no time you can make a bag front.
Once you have got all the pieces together in some sort of coherent form around the star, it is time to think about not just securing it all, but embellishing it too.
I started with machine and it was a great opportunity to use some of the decorative stitches on my Janome with different colour threads. Because most of the blocks were plain fabrics, variegated threads worked rather well for this. Once you have sewn along a few seams in this way, the whole piece starts to feel more stable. It is fun to incorporate seams from the original jeans too and this also adds thickness to it.
There are lots of great resources out there about Crazy patchwork and this book is one of my favourites. I have had it for many years, but it really is packed full of stitches and inspiration for this technique. Quite a few years ago (before I even began quilting) on a visit to America, we went to a small Civil War museum in Charleston. In one of the glass cabinets was a handmade crazy quilt, made out of scraps of silk and velvet. It was mesmerising and completely laden with brightly coloured embroidery. It made such an impression on me that it has stayed with me all along my sewing journey and although I have never attempted such a project, this bag was a small way to get back to this idea. It is such a freeing form of needlework. You can use almost any kind of thread, bead, button or sequin along with a multitude of beautiful embroidery stitches. It adds strength and firmness to the bag front and is just so much fun to do. Woven motifs, heavily embellished borders and a splattering of sparkle make for wonderful hand crafted work.
Once this whole piece was done, I put it up on my design wall to assess what to do for the other side of the bag and somehow, it got left up there for way too long. I think that it seemed like such a winter project that I left it all over the summer months and actually, it was only a drive to declutter my sewing space that prompted me to get on with it.
I had a gorgeous piece of thick navy wool in my stash and decided that this would make a nice contrast for the main panel of the bag. I added a denim strip down the middle and some rivets for decoration. I had an odd piece of leather strapping which found it’s way on to the top part of the panel and then I traced a star outline, the same size as the pieced one on the front, but this time, I just outlined it in metallic thread. These ‘diamant’ threads from DMC come in a delicious selection of metallic colours and I particularly like the coppery coloured one. I added a jeans pocket, which I embroidered first using some beautiful coloured sequins from Etsy (link below) and used the very last little scrap of leather on. I actually really like working with leather and it definitely adds a touch of class to the whole bag.
Once the two panels were ready, I cut some lovely ‘roasted pecan’ gingham by Robert Kaufman for the lining. This seemed to fit perfectly with the look of both panels and is my current favourite fabric.
I used woven interfacing on all the panels to add some extra stiffness and then I was ready to go with assembling the bag. I have made a few tote bags now, so am pretty ok with how it goes.
The straps are made from 1” wide leather strapping that I got from Etsy (link below) and I really think they are worth to do. The whole bag looks really pro and I am just so excited to use it. I actually love both sides of it equally, which I didn’t expect and although it has taken a while to come together, it is just a real treasure now. Upcycling or recycling is such a valuable thing to do, making something new out of old jeans, scraps, buttons beads and just having the best fun in the process creating a whole new piece. It will always be the St. Kilda bag to me and what’s more it is perfect for a book bag. I hope one day to visit St. Kilda and I’ll be sure to take this with me - now that would be a wonderful photo for my scrap book.
What is more, it is the perfect pairing with my ‘Outlander’ quilt…. It’s a good job I’ve finally managed to discover my Scottish roots….I just knew my obsession with Scotland couldn’t be for nothing….see you next time.
