Transformation Concluded!

Eeeeeekkkkk!!!! I’m literally so excited to share this project with you, I could literally shout about it from the rooftops, whether my neighbours liked it or not lol!!

Short backstory for you…..I’ve been seeing a trend on IG lately and I’m absolutely obsessed with it! There is this whole younger generation that are all about upcycling and doing their part to make sure that garments aren’t ending up in landfills, and they’re doing it in the most amazing way, by taking a garment, or multiple, and repurposing them into a “new” garment that is incredible! They cut it all up in precise ways and then just like a jigsaw puzzle, they fit those pieces back together in a different configuration and end up with something amazing! I have 2 favourite accounts that I follow and they are susoriginals and kristinjuszczyk. Now if you’re a football fan, you may be familiar with the 2nd name, Kristin Juszczyk as her husband is #44 on the San Francisco 49ers. Kristin is a clothing designer of “reworked clothes” specializing in what she’s around all the time….sports wear such as jerseys and you may also have seen some of her designs as she’s done some reworked pieces for the likes of Brittany Mahomes and someone else you’re probably familiar with, Taylor Swift! The things she can make out of a jersey are simply incredible!

So what do these have to do with me….do you think this is something I decided to try? Honestly, I have thought about it, and my daughter would be very happy if I did but here’s a truth for you…..I don’t emotionally feel like I can take on anything “new” right now! I’ve been feeling overwhelmed with the amount of things I need to be making as, here’s another confession, my love of sewing hasn’t yet completely returned so I haven’t really been sewing. If I look at my calendar where I’m writing what activity I did that day, if any, I see that this month I’ve sewn 7 times….7…..out of 28 days!!!!! For me, that’s hardly at all considering in the past it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for me to sew something daily! I’m really not trying to dwell on it too much, I’m confident that I’ll get back to a better rhythm for me personally but for right now, it is what it is! So as I was saying, to take on a new skill like the repurposing clothing isn’t in my realm right now….but I can, and did, something similar, but in a way I’m much for comfortable with!

You may remember that Jeff and I started going to the London Majors ballgames in nearby London (Ontario, just to clarify lol) last summer and we enjoyed them so much, we bought season passes for this year! Well, at one of the games last year, one of their sponsors handed out free logo t-shirts to the first so many attendees, which was incredible and so generous, and both Jeff and I received one! We were pleasantly surprised to see that they were Gildan shirts too, which is a great quality brand name so once we were parked, we excitedly put our shirts on and were a bit shocked at how small they were! We got to choose what size we wanted so I asked for an XL and Jeff got an L and they were so tight on both of us lol! I was very uncomfortable with the fit so I took mine off but Jeff kept his on, the only time he ended up wearing it! Once home, I threw mine in my dresser thinking that if I could just lose oh, 30 or 40 lbs, I’d be able to wear it lol!

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, we’re visiting our friends Nancy and Geoff and we were talking about the upcoming ball season and Nancy brings out a sweatshirt she has from a Majors game they went to. I could tell that she maybe doesn’t love how it fits her, even though I thought it looked great but it gave me an idea that I thought about all the way home at the end of our evening, and for a few days after! What if I took that too small shirt and upcycled it into something I could actually use……A BAG!!!!!! What’s the worse that could happen, I wasn’t going to wear it any time soon so if I ruined it, if the bag didn’t turn out, what did it matter?!?

So I did it…..I made a bag! It took me awhile to wrap my head around it, to make sure I cut the logo off straight, to figure out what I needed to do to the knit to make it stable enough for a bag….but I did it! So, after all this rambling, I’m so proud to share with you my new London Majors bag…….

Oh my heart, can you even believe this bag!!!!! Ok so let me gather my wits and tell you all about it! First off, this little cutie is the Begonia Drawstring Backpack by Blue Calla Patterns, one of my favourite bags to make, it’s so simple and quick and the only hardware it requires is the zippers!!! I wanted the bag to really have that t-shirt look so that meant I wanted to use the shirt for as much of it as I could! I had enough for the front and back panel and for the drawstring casings! I had to change the size of it slightly to accommodate the size of the logo but honestly that was easy with this pattern, it’s so versatile! Sticking with using what I already have, I used a blue outdoor fabric for the interior that I had leftover from making outdoor cushions and that was the same for the red front panel pockets, it’s also an outdoor fabric leftover from outdoor cushions lol! I liked that the fabric is waterproof so if we get caught in a rain shower at the field, no problem, everything in the bag will stay dry!!! As for the cork, I chose it because it kind of reminded me of an old beat-up baseball……ok maybe you have to squint to see it but just go with me on this ok lol?!? I was trying to decide what to do for the straps when Melissa suggested using our White Braided Polypro Cord and I think it is absolutely perfect…thanks again Melissa lol!

So the only thing I needed to figure out was how to interface the knit to make it stable enough so what did I have at home? Why SF101 of course, so that’s what I went with! I fused one layer and I decided it wasn’t quite firm enough so I added a second layer and I think it was pretty darn close to what I was thinking it should be! I didn’t add any interfacing to the outdoor fabric as it’s a bit sturdier on it’s own. Now Celine, the designer, does suggest you don’t interface the drawstring casings because they might be too thick to gather tightly but I was thinking that I needed to as I was worried the knit might just stretch out of shape. Here’s a tip….always listen to the designer lol! I put one layer in them and as you can see from the 3rd pic above, it is too thick and that’s as tightly as I can close it! Hopefully it loosens up over time but if not, I’m still going to love it just as it is!

Oh gosh, I just love this little bag so much, and “little” is really the perfect description for it because I’d totally forgotten how small it actually is! Perhaps if I had remembered that, I could have made it a bit bigger, but then maybe I wouldn’t have had enough shirt…who knows! I’m sure it will serve it’s purpose of carrying a sweater for when the sun goes down and it cools off, also my water bottle, phone and glasses!

First exhibition game is next weekend so stay tuned…..I feel like a little photo shoot with my bag at the actual ballpark is needed lol!

Oh, and you do remember that I said Jeff had a shirt too, and that he wasn’t going to wear it again…….hmmmmmmmm, stay tuned friends, there’s more to come!

Have an amazing week!

Shawna