Year of the handbag–March–the boot bag part one

I HAD to post this, even if it's a bit early, cause I'm so thrilled with it. For the first time in my life, a craft item has turned out pretty much EXACTLY how I planned it.

I came up with the concept for the boot bag in January, as I started to think about the bags I could make. Turning a boot into a backpack – seemed a winner to me.

So here's how it goes: first, you gather the makings.

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A) a boot                             b) a piece of linen               c) a piece of jersey           d) some strapping

[image error] e) buckles and cord ends

The boot was second-hand from the Salvos – $9.

First thing was to work out the pattern for the internal sleeve. I measured the length of the boot, and the circumference in three places and cut it out of newspaper. It worked, so then I cut the linen. Next, I cut the jersey to make a collar at the top of the internal sleeve, two pockets and a strap for the keys. I'd worked out that I couldn't just let things fall down the bottom of the boot – it would just be too hard to scramble for stuff at the bottom. So my plan was to have a strap at the top the keys could be connected to and two pockets near the top, one for mobile phone and one for cards/money so they'll be easy to access quickly.

The first thing I assembled was the strap. I used a knife to cut a small slot between the leather and the sole and the strap was glued in there after first part of buckle put on. Then I measured up the rest of the strap and glued it to the top of the bag, so it would do up at an angle across the chest.

Next, I sewed all the pieces of material together. The key strap had a press stud put on it before it was glued to the top of the boot at well (the idea being it can either hang down the side or get pushed into the middle over the collar.

Then internal sleeve (with the collar attached) is then glued into place. Finally, the top of the collar is sewn around and then a cord put in to pull it closed. So the collar acts as the closure for the bag, and then gets rolled over the top when you're accessing the bag.

So the result looks like this:

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Yes, you are looking at a black stiletto boot that's been turned into a handbag. Exactly what I envisaged.

However, I'm going to be making another one because now that I've seen it made, I've realised there's some issues with it.

First, the back-pack element of it doesn't really work. It's going to be much better as a bag you carry in your hand. Secondly, the jersey is too flimsy (even though it looks great). I want to do again with a better material. Also, the initial pattern I drew up for the internal sleeve isn't as efficient as it should be. I did it with one straight edge, when really it should be like a sleeve on a shirt with both sides angled to make the circle work better. As a result, I just sewed the end together but I want to make it more like a tube. Finally, I originally thought I'd stuff the toe of the boot but then I left it empty cause I thought it would be a storage space for things you don't need to access much, like a jacket. But it's just not enough room, even for a little jacket that screws up small, so I think I'll stuff it to stiffen up the whole boot.

I had a dream that I'd use this bag in America. Now I've decided I won't – but I'm going to try making the hand-held bag by the end of March and will use it at Swancon.

So all in all – it came out exactly as I envisaged, which I'm really chuffed about. Turns out the reality of it isn't quite as good a bag as I'd thought it would be, but now I see how to refine it and I think it could be a really cool, funky bag.

I'll show you March part II within the next week [image error]