If it doesn't fit well hell turn it into a bag.

Hello my darlings,

Oh my another pause in blogging owing to much general running around and dog sitting.  I've got so much to tell as I've already made a couple of dresses this year and I've just finished the muslin for the very special project.  I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk about the very special project yet as I need to speak to the lovely Laura but rest assured when I get the go ahead I will share because I'll be looking for all the help I can get.

For now I will just write a little about a lovely shoulder bag I refashioned from a sweatshirt.   Well living in Brighton offers the obvious joy of being a stone's throw from the sea but also a hop, skip and a jump to some great and very cheap vintage shops.

It was the other week when I was trotting through the lanes that this baby caught my eye in the window of a little shop.  I unfortunately don't have the initial photo but use your imagination to visualise it as a sweatshirt.  The time was 6pm and the shop was closed but I was convinced if I went back the next day that no one else would have decided to snap up a small Hooters sweatshirt.

I was correct in my thinking and when I popped back to Dirty Harry in Sydney Street it was still pinned up in the window.  I bought it for the princely sum of £5 and then went about my business.  

Well I got home on Blue Monday (Monday 23rd Jan or last Monday) and checked the label and it was for a 9 year old and although I have lost a fair bit of weight in recent months I have not gone backwards through puberty and with all the best will in the world my girls were never going to fit no matter how stretchy grey marl is.

So I mused and thought if a girl can't have a Hooters sweatshirt she  can certainly have a Hooters bag.  

So this is what I did.  First of all I cut the bottom off to be repositioned at the top, cut straight down the sides so I would have even seams and then chopped the arms off to fashion a strap.  Luckily I had quite a bit of stretch left over from the Double Agent Dress, which I will blog about separately but here's a pic teaser :)

Agent Miss D reporting for duty.

So I overlocked the left over fabric and used this great tutorial from Sew Mama Sew to insert the lining.  Ooh I do love a dotty lining.

Here's the bag in perspective.

And close up with my pleased as punch expression.

I finished this baby just in time to run out the door for 2 for 1 mojitos with my lovely friend Sarah who's down working in Brighton at the moment.  We went to Misty's in Hove, which I can recommend highly for delicious and very reasonable cocktails plus there's a tiki lounge at the back, which as you can imagine totally appeals to me :)  

So the only thing that was blue about my Monday was the lining on the bag!

Until next time darlings don't be blue.

Miss D 

xxx