Pillow Sham Messenger Bag

One of my biggest passions is repurposing items.  You might remember my Placemat ClutchSheets to CurtainsMan’s Shirt to Flirty Skirt or Tea Towel Curtains.  It gives me such a thrill to turn one item into something completely different.

I was shopping at Marshall’s last week with Hubs when he got a call from an old friend.  I used this slight distraction to pop into the home section and rummage through the clearance aisle.  Sitting there, just waiting to come home with me, was a king-sized, quilted pillow sham in a gorgeous paisley and leaf print for just $3! I didn’t think twice and tossed it into our cart.

King-sized pillow sham.

My mom had been asking me to make her a new purse, something with a long strap that wouldn’t fall off of her shoulder.  I have to admit, making hand bags isn’t, well, my bag (wah, wah).  I have a couple of friends who make phenomenal handbags, and I tend to lean more toward accessories and clutches…

Anyhoo, I got a spark of inspiration and decided to give it a shot using the fabric from the new pillow sham.

This isn’t going to be a tutorial, exactly, since I don’t have step by step pictures or measurements, but maybe it will inspire you to make your own!

The first thing I did was remove all of the stitching.  This left me with one large quilted piece (beige), and two smaller pieces of a thin cotton (pink).  I then cut the quilted piece in half (through the short side) and used that for the exterior and one of the small pink pieces as the lining.  The other piece of pink fabric I cut into strips and sewed together to make the strap.

I didn’t use a pattern or any specific measurements.  I just played it by ear and hoped for the best.  Here is how it turned out:

VOILA!

I mitered the corners, and added a fabric flower with some left over lining fabric.

I added two interior pockets for Mom’s cell phone and keys.

 

Roomy and comfy, and all for $3!

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iPad (2) Sleeve

Last week I came across Just Another Hang Up’s Bunting Kindle Case and I fell in LUH-HUV (too bad I don’t have a Kindle, yet!) The next day I stumbled upon Sweet Verbena’s iPad Sleeve (GORGEOUS!)

I decided that I would blend both of those ideas and came up with my own version of a Bunting iPad Sleeve:

I had such a fun time going through my scraps and cutting out little pennants!  My mini-me cut out a bunch more for my next bunting project…oh and there will be another!

I used a funky fat quarter for the lining and added fusible fleece.

In the end, it turned out to be a bit too snug on my (Hubs’) “original” iPad, but should fit an iPad 2 perfectly!! Hint, hint, Hubby! (if you didn’t catch that Kindle hint at the beginning!)…somebody has a birthday next week…. 😉 Just kidding, I already got my birthday present! More on that to come!

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