Upcycled Shirt-Purse Tutorial.

So, I had this striped long sleeve shirt that was one of my absolute favorite shirts but after a while it got these really gross looking pit stains that I couldn't remove. (tmi, I know but its the reason I chose this shirt and is why I am calling it 'upcycled') So I decided that it would make an adorable purse. With these directions you can make your own shirt-purse.

 1.Choose a shirt and cut off the sleeves at the shoulder seams.


2. Cut off however tall you want your purse to be, plus seam allowances.

3. If you want a neckline pocket, square off the neckline.

4. I used a knit interfacing on the back of my shirt fabric to give my purse more body. I didn't bother putting it in the outside pocket.

5. I turned my neckline inside out (right sides together) and sewed the seams so that I would have nice clean edges. Once your edges are sewed together for the neckline pocket flip it right sides out and on one half of your purse front, use a ruler to center it or just place it wherever. You can now sew it onto the purse, I used a tight zig zag stitch as kind of decoration, it scalloped the neckline piece a little bit because of the knit, but not too bad. I then sewed the back half of my neckline down. I just followed the seam right under the black collar fabric.

6. I chose a blue cotton lining for the inside. I laid the striped shirt fabric on top of my lining fabric to get the size right and cut out my lining. My bag follows the shape of my shirt so I couldn't just cut out a square. I then folded my lining in half and sewed across the bottom and the open side to close 2 of the 3 open sides leaving the top open.

7. With the lining folded in half, I found the center of the top of the purse and installed my magnetic clasp with a little piece of cardboard for stability. I then sewed the shirt fabric the same as the lining leaving the top edge open.

8.With both my shirt and lining fabric inside out, I just lined up the folded lining piece on top of the knit piece with the fold on top of the fold. I then sewed again along my 'open' edges that I had just sewed shut, I sewed right on top of my previous sewing through all 4 layers of fabric (2 layers of shirt and 2 of lining). This is so the lining will stay down inside the purse. Then when I was finished I reached down into my shirt and pulled the bottom corner out so the shirt is right side out. It should pull the lining with it and the lining should have the right side inside the purse.

9. Then I double folded the top edge down and sewed along the top edge of the purse.

10. After I turned the purse inside out and sewed a triangle on the bottom corners to create a box look on the outside. 

11. Next I took my sleeves and cut the shoulder part off of each of them so it was one long tube and sewed both sleeves together. I pinned the sleeves to the outside of the purse. I wanted people to be able to tell that those were the sleeves.



12. I then embroidered my initials to a piece of lining fabric and used a decorative stitch on my machine to sew it to the outside of where the clasp is on the purse.

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