recycled and refashioned - Tote Bag

Before                                                                                     After

I picked up this Island shop (one of my favorite brand) linen top with beautiful prints during one of the wardrobe clearing session of my sister -in -law. I am not voluptuous enough to wear  the top but I thought  of redesigning  it into something....

The top is just perfectly to be redesigned into a tote bag. It was not difficult to just sew the opening at the bottom and turned it right into a tote bag. But I thought it would be better off with some pockets for my nick-knacks and the interlay would add weight to the tote for firmness.

Women are more complicated than men in many ways... for one we have more nick-knacks to carry around...thus, compartments are useful.

Open up the seam along the bust lines & sewn an orange inlay,
there they are - 2 pockets outside and another 2 inside the bag.

Left- A loop to hold the keys save the trouble looking for them!
Right - The original side zipper of the top

A lot of patient needed to do the embroidery

To give the tote some texture I embroidered it with chain stitches and added some wooden beads and buttons. Finally I added  a tassel which I removed from  a curtain panel some years ago. I always thought it would be useful one day.

During one of the family meeting, I showed my sister-in-law the bag and asked if it looked familiar to her. She was puzzled for a moment and cried out when she recognized it.

I have given a new life to her top and this gorgeous tote catches many of my friends' attention. 

Let's reduce, reuse and recycle!