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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Altered Denim Bag!

Good morning!  Sherry here today and I’m back with my first post after my 5-month leave of absence.  I’m sure most of you probably didn’t even realize I wasn’t posting, but I’m very happy to be back and creating for you once again!

I’m taking this opportunity to participate in Toni’s e Picks Challenge – Do Something With a Bag.  You have until the end of the day today, to participate along with us.

DenimBagOpen

Instead of starting with a tote or paper bag that I had around the house, I decided to go digging through my stash for some old fabric that I could make a bag out of.  I ended up finding an old pair of denim shorts that I thought would work with what I had in mind.

DenimShorts

In order to bleach out part of the blue in the denim, I went to my new favorite tool in my arsenal . . . Tilex.  Never without it in the kitchen, and I can see now that it’s going to be a staple in the studio as well (especially when I’ve run out of bleach in the laundry room).  What you are seeing in the photo above, is the back of the leg that I worked on.  I sprayed the Tilex all over the front of the leg to turn the shorts white, and love how it seeped through sporadically on the back to leave that splotched look.    I might also add that after the Tilex dried, I did run the shorts through the laundry to make sure there wasn’t any left in the fabric. 

Once I had the front of the leg cut away, I quickly went to work setting up a pattern for a bag.  The fabric was folded in half at the bottom, leaving me two seams along the sides.  The top edges were folded over and a channel seam was made for pull cords.

DenimBagCloseUP

Ranger Wendy Vecchi Signature Archival Ink were used to embellish the front.  Hydrangea was used to stencil a crisscross pattern and then Cornflower Blue was used to stencil the TCW Mini Art Is script. 

DenimBagCloseUpFlower

Layers for the flower were die cut from bits and pieces of the left over denim shorts.  The dark blue was a section of the back of the leg, the light blue is from the pockets, the white is from a bleached section, and the gold is from an old gift bag that I ripped apart for the cording.  Vintage lace was added to the bottom and an old vintage clip earring was added in the center.

DenimBagClosed

This will make a perfect bag to store jewelry in while traveling, or even for the grandbaby to keep all her little treasures in when we go shopping (she always has to take her purse along when we leave the house)!

That’s all for me today . . . thanks for joining me!!

eP Signature - Sherry Cheever


Project Supplies:


11 comments:

toni said...

This is wonderful Sherry! Brilliant idea to use denim and bleach,it's so pretty x

Redanne said...

What a stunning way to recycle an old pair of shorts!

ionabunny said...

Gorgeous. Such a lovely little bag

Bonnie Irvine said...

Welcome back,Sherry. We did miss you and your inspiring projects. You create such amazing flowers like this layered denim one with an earring center...so clever. Love the recycling of the jean shorts and how well it took the inks. Great idea!

Janet L. said...

Very creative and cute, cute, cute!!

SusanK said...

You HAVE been missed; so glad you're back! What a simply lovely bag. And I love the idea of using a bleach-type product but not bleach.

Andiepants said...

Adorable little bag!!!

Micki said...

Wow, Tilex???? Would not have thought to use this on the jeans. Awesome. The bag is gorgeous and I really love that you kept the stenciling to a minimum (not covering the whole bag). Absolutely gorgeous! And so happy to have you back!

Sue Lelli said...

This is FANTASTIC, Sherry! Welcome back! LOVE the text you added and the bleaching and the GORGEOUS flower!

Dolly LaBelle said...

This is so cool! Nice recycle.

Tracy said...

Gorrrgeous Sherry, love the use of the bleach and will be having a go at that too.
Big hugs
Tracy
xoxox