Stripey bag

I said there was a bag coming along, and here it is...I discovered that these belts I bought for 30p each from the charity shop are Judo belts, there you go, I have never seen them before. Their striking colours caught my eye as I rummaged through the bric a brac box on the floor. I had to wash them first as they were a bit dusty and it took couple of days to dry them, blowing in the wind outside on the line, as they have some kind of brown hessian inside them. I started off by cutting them into 28inch lengths, this was just a guess. Then I hemmed all the ends up, at this stage I wasn't sure whether to make the stripes horizontal or vertical. Next I joined all the stripes together with a zigzag stitch on the machine, they are too thick to overlap them. This gave me a flat piece so I joined the two ends to make a circle. I hand stitched this seam because it was slightly crooked, and because of it's bulk I couldn't use the machine. I kept two pieces back for the handles. I had to sew the handles on by hand, and I used string to do it. I covered the handsewn vertical seam with one of the orange handles to disguise it.

I just need to hand sew across the bottom now, I shall do it with string to match the handles. I took the photo first as it stands up nicely on the worktop. It measures 14.5 inches across and 12 inches deep. I have about five inches of yellow left over so I might make a fastener with it and add some velcro. A very sturdy bag for work or college, you could put a few bits of shopping in it as well. Total cost 90p.