Picture the scene…
I settled myself in my cinema seat, switched off my mobile phone and then zipped my bag right up into infinity. Yep, the handbag that had been hanging on for dear life for so long, had finally given up the ghost.
Luckily for me I had bookmarked a tutorial for a duct tape bag. I had planned to make it ages ago, so the three rolls of tape were already waiting - all I had to now was get on with it.
I deviated from the the tutorial a little as I wanted to use the removable strap from the the other handbag, and I also wanted to make sure it was stronger than something held together with average adhesive. So I cut a couple of two inch pieces from a rejected tape strip, created loops and sandwiched them between the layers of tape that formed the sides. I only had one D ring left on the original bag, so I used a keyring I had been given as a Xmas gift for the other ‘D ring’. I then machine sewed them in place to increase the tensile strength.
I also made sure that I machined sewed the side panels to the main body of the bag, after initially holding everything in place with tape: I treat my bags in a fairly rough manner, and had to ensure I was creating something that wasn't going to fall apart after a couple of uses.
I'm not going to lie; preparing all of those duct tape strips was time consuming and the bag took me around 5 hours to complete, (and I had to hand crank the sewing machine A LOT to get the needle through the layers of glue!) but I was really pleased with the results.
 |
| Pictured: patience... |
I added the pin badge (from one of my husband’s suits) to the flap, partly for decoration, and partly because I was having trouble distinguishing the front from the back - I thought I was being totally random with the white strips: turned out that they ended up creating a back and front symmetry…
Here's the link, again, if you want to try making your own: https://diannadesigns.wordpress.com/tutorials/woven-duct-tape-purse/
By the way - the film I went to see was ‘Me, Earl, and The Dying Girl’, and I cannot recommend it highly enough!
