jano bag

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 :) For my latest creations, please visit my blog:  https://sewingjulie.com/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sewingjulieblog/ Attention: I'm not the professional (have that in mind) and there are many ways to sew the same garment, this is how I make it! Materials: - Jacket or any other material for outside of the bag. My jacket was from a material called alcantara (I guess), which is nice to work with but very hard to find (I heard of it for the first time). So I would suggest you use faux leather or suede (because they are waterproof and lasts long), but it's up to your fantasy - you can use either mentioned materials, either fabric, either mix of different materials. Howev...

Hello Everyone! Note: the tutorial for this bag is going to be up in a couple of days, so be sure to check it out!  Update: the tutorial is now  here. Today I’d like to share with you my latest bag – a bag made from a thrifted jacket. The design is a combination of my previous bags: the handles (I find these handles the most comfortable to carry) and the square shape is from the Simple Bag , the construction is basically the same as in the Day Bag , the ends of the handles are from the first bag I made . The long zipper was inspired by Celine Luggage Tote , which allows carrying a lot of things in a bag when opened. Despite small imperfections ( like a zipper that opens a bit too hard. But with a bag color like this I couldn’t be picky ), I really like this bag and I think it’s probably the best bag I’ve made so far. It will be a good substitute to my current everyday bag. A couple of modeling photos to give an idea about the size

I'm now making a bag from this jacket - hope it will be done in a couple of days! There are many places to find materials for sewing projects: the usual fabric stores, online shops,   own closet filled with I-will-never-wear-this-again clothing, a friends closet, also filled with some unwanted clothes, a fabric stash, hidden in bottom of the closet with fabric we can’t re-call purchasing, thrift stores and probably some very unique places which I forgot to count. The assortment in local fabric stores isn’t as big as I wish it was and it doesn’t change as fast as I hope it one day will; the online fabric shops aren’t for such picky shoppers like me, who must to test the fabric before spending money on it; my closet is already in a state where I can’t look at it and think of what I can get rid of; my fabric stash is small and now only contains things that are in I-will-finish-it-one-day condition, some big sewing flops which I can’t force myself to throw away and the very first garm...

There were a lot of variations of a duffel bag created by famous brands recent years, so I decided to make one myself. Frankly, I’m not the one to make/buy/wear something just because it’s “in” , but I couldn’t resist the temptation to test this shape, because it’s not something I would normally go for. Since this was meant to be a test bag, I used cheap heavyweight cotton (I used the same cotton in the cosmetics bag ) instead of leather. I’m a bit undecided whether I like the result. On one hand, I like that this bag fits a lot, even though it’s small. And I like the plain looks of it (you might have noticed already that I’m a fan of simple bags with little detail). But on the other hand it feels a bit too sporty for everyday occasions to me.   Anyway, I’ll be using this bag for short trips, however, I don’t know if I will be repeating this shape any time soon, simply because it’s not exactly my style. P.S. For the future record, this bag will also be known as “the one that doesn...

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! So, let me show you how I made it! Tutorial What I used : - Fabric (100% cotton; color black; the amount depends on the size you want, I used about 20x20 cm square); - Faux-leather (of course you can used any other fabric if y...

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 Needles and Stitches I realized that in my earlier tutorial The Braided Shirt , which was a tutorial for shirt from stretch fabrics, I said absolutely nothing about choosing stitches and needles which is very important when it comes to sewing stretch fabrics (Oh, silly me…). So now I’ll start this tutorial from stitches and needles.   First, you need to look up if your sewing machine has elastic seams (they are marked with different colour) – most sewing machines have them. If yours don’t have that, you can still sew stretch fabrics: just use a narrow zigzag stitch. If you do have elastic stitches you can use either one of them, but you should test different stitches on your chosen fabri...

It might have been a bit too boring to show you simple T-shirt, so I prepared some outfits by using same T-shirt (made by me), jeans, watch and shoes matched differently with 2 scarves, 1 jacket and 2 necklaces. (Click on photo to see bigger view). Now if you would add different hair-dos', earing, shoes and etc. you can create infinite number of outfits based on one basic T-shirt! T-shirts are considered to be a wardrobe necessity and I couldn’t agree more. Having some basic T-shirt in simple colors like white, black or grey can easily expand your clothing choices as you can wear the same t-shirt with jeans, pants, skirts, hoodies, jackets and etc. and look different each time. I’ve noticed that many home sewers don’t like making this clothing as it’s “too simple” or “boring” and “why bother making them when it’s easier to go to any clothing store and buy some for a little price”. However, I am one those people who gives a huge plus to homemade T-shirts. And let me tell you why. It...