Recycling - From a kurta to a kool Tote

Recently I was cleaning up my wardrobe and separating the clothes I hadn't worn in the last two years so that I keep only the clothes I wear and get rid of all the clutter. Among the clutter was this chocolate brown jute salwar set with cute little bell embellishments. I didn't want to throw this away so I decided to recycle this and breathe some new life into it. Well it would serve another purpose too : Last year I had bought myself a sewing machine and I decided to get into sewing. With so many blogs and really good tutorials available on the net, it has become very easy to learn anything....and you get a lot of ideas too. So here lay the fabric for my next sewing project.

I had actually done some research and finally zeroed in on Tote Tutorial for beginners by Rita. She has given very clear instructions and also pictures of each step. Great one for beginners (like me). I was waiting for the weekend to buy the fabric but didn't have to now.

For the tote I followed Rita's instructions exactly and for the recycling part.....I used the body of the kurta, that is the widest part from the bottom, for the body of the Tote. I didn't bother with removing the stitches I just snipped away to get my two rectangles. From the top part of the kurta, I got my handles for the Tote. That leaves us with just the two sleeves and the bell embellishments. One of the sleeves was used for the inner pocket and the other sleeve for the pocket which is seen on the outside. I decided to use the bells too to decorate the Tote. I snipped off the string of bells, took 2 bells out and sewed them on to the outer pocket and sewed up the remaining bells as is on to one of the handles. There you go from a "kurta to a kool Tote"....And I am glad.

gita