I made this tote bag from nine men’s shirt collars and two button plackets. The design came from KoKo Yamase’s Cut-Up Couture book. In her book it does not have the button plackets I added. The reason I added them was one collar has a sweat stain on it, so I cut the placket with the buttons and added it to cover up the stain. I used one other button placket to create a shoulder strap. I did add one more layer of fabric underneath the button placket just to make the strap stronger.

It took a lot of patience to make this bag. I am not used to sewing denim and therefore even though I had denim needles for my old Singer sewing machine from the seventies, I managed to break three needles.   Sewing over the layered collars was tricky and some of the collar corners I sewed down by hand to finish out the small details of the bag. I also did not notice until I had sewed my layers together that in the book Koko designed it so that the layers of collars get reversed when they are joined, so instead of collars being aligned when the sets join to create a tube, one side goes with the collars facing the other direction. Mine had the collar edges sticking up on both sides, which meant the little collar midpoints, where they usually button also stuck out a bit, so I hand sewed most of those down.  So many of the directions in her book are visual; I have found it easy to miss something! Anyway I am a rather patient woman and this project really tried my patience. I have found it is one of the good things about crafts though, it does help one develop more patience. If you really want to finish something you just have to get through it!

It took me quite a while I get enough collars. I was slowly gathering them together the past year from various projects, but I added four more shirts to my collection by visiting a Goodwill Outlet in Long Island City that sells thrifted clothing by the pound. Its location is at 47-47 Van Dam Street. Buying from there was a real learning experience in terms of boundaries and space. It was a slightly crazy scene out there once they refill the bins, which appears as if it happens every two hours.  I had only selected a few items to place in my grocery cart. When they refill the bins one has to leave ones cart against the wall and wait while they refill the bins. Then the manager comes out and talks to the shoppers as if we were a bunch of children, explaining the meaning of “walking to the bins”, versus running. It felt ridiculous but it was obvious why they go through this once they let us loose to go back to the bins. People were running, slowly but running and it became a mad scene. It was not possible to get my cart back into the narrow aisles with all those people so I left it against the wall and checked on it twice. When I went back for it a few minutes later someone had taken my handful of items and either thrown it elsewhere and taken my cart, or taken my stuff. Anyway after that I was emotionally tired of the experience and decided to just find some shirts for upcycling. I wouldn’t say they were as good quality shirts as I find when I shop slowly at garage sales or piece by piece at thrift store sales, but they came out to one dollar each and I was able to leave there with five shirts for five dollar. I will return there another time but next time I will know that I must guard my basket better, or if I only have a handful of items remove them from the cart. I would say that this place is really great if one has a handful of growing children to provide clothing for and is on a serious budget. They sell the clothing for about $1.69 a pound so if you really need some low priced thrifted clothing and are willing to dig it is a good place. Plus if you need clothing for upcycling it is good. I had found a black water fall skirt that was really nice quality. I was eager to keep it and take it home to see if it fit but easy come, easy go, it disappeared with those items that were taken.  Plus I had found a lovely handmade Italian tie and a little vintage purse. Anyway next time I will see what I find! Plus guard more carefully!

I am close to finishing a skirt made from a vintage pillowcase and another upcycling project for a dress, from a vintage Liberty of London linen top and a silk skirt from a Thai dress. I will post those later once I finish them.

I hope you are enjoying the rest of summer.  I have been getting out for some biking and kayaking whenever I get a chance. I will continue slowly working on various projects from this Cut-Up Couture book, since I like Koko Yamase’s designs very much. Whenever I do another I will share it with you.

A photos and written material by Marilyn Lavender. © Marilyn Lavender, 2015.  “All rights reserved.”