Here is my next TOTE bag...not yet on ebay

TOTE

Part of the philosophy at TOTE designs to use recyled materials when possible. Currently I am working on tote bags made from vintage Japanese kimonos and want to explore the use of these materials further...perhaps in the form of pants or skits. However my time is limted for TOTE projects as this is not my full time job so I need to juggle TOTE designs between work, studying Japanese and pottery.

Anyway back to my topic of recyled clothes. There are so many second hand clothes out there and too many new ones! I have written in the past about young Japanese matching their cucci belt with recyled clothes from THANKYOU MART in Harjuku, but I haven't written about about taking second hand clothes, chopping them up and making something else out of them. All it takes is a little imagination...and a sewing machine.

Part of this weekend was spent making a bag and scarf my myself. The materials, being wool shirts were bought from THANKYOU MART then cut up and reassembled into two new cool pieces for just under 1500 Yen or around $17.00 AUD. It would be impossible to buy a similar scarf for under 3000 Yen in Tokyo. And the bag would be well into the 10 000 Yen range or over 100 AUD. So you see it can be easy to be stylish and CHEAP at the same time...

Happy sewing....

TOTE

Hey! Click on the photo if you want to buy my bag!

Here is a picture of my lastest bag....soon to be sold on ebay...I have another bag on the go which should be finished by the weekend and will be sold as a second, as I noticed there was a tea or soy stain on it from the previous owner of the kimono. The one you see here will be selling for $30 AUD on ebay. I will put the link up once I have posted it on ebay which hopefull will be tomorrow...

Japanese test: over

Autumn: over

Sunday: back to the sewing machine!