Circling back

The other day this popped up on my YouTube "Recommended" suggestions:

Forty seconds in, the maker starts ironing her Hawai'ian shirt fabric scraps and my brain went, "Ding! Ding! Ding! I've gleaned a bag of these kinds of scraps from one of the donated legacy stashes! I can start using them up by making these bags and donating them to Community First! Village for sale in their Marketplace!! Everybody WINS, YAY!!!!!" (My brain owns a surplus of exclamation points.) (Also, picture a Kermit flail at the YAY!)

I remembered where I had stashed all my denim scraps . . .

. . . and only had to pull a couple of drawers to find the shirt scraps. What I had NOT remembered were all the half-done projects I had stuffed in with the denim scraps, complete with plans, patterns, and templates (primarily a collection of various-sized AOL CDs. Remember those?) This one in particular was a surprise, as I could see I'd put in quite a bit of time and effort (complete with a graphed-out pattern), but I had no memory of stashing it away:

 I set that aside and started in tracing circles on denim scraps. I liked the part where I didn't have to cut things out carefully; you draw the circle on the denim scrap, place it face down on the shirt scrap, and sew on the line. The only careful cutting necessary was closely trimming the seam.

(Days-) long story short: There was very little similarity to what the video showed and my experience dealing with actual denim in real life. Within the first day of working on it (and it took at least 3 days to construct), I knew I'd finish the one I'd started (I'm stubborn that way) and never EVER make another. Anyway, here's the finished product:

12" high x 9" wide x 3" deep

The denim straps were a non-starter. There was absolutely no way to turn them right-side-out after sewing the tubes (and I'm no beginner when it comes to turning tubes). So I ditched those and sewed together some smaller scrap strips for the handles/straps (I also made them longer so I could sling this onto my shoulder.) This lives in the car now and I'll grab it when I have a small shopping run to make.

The old project was next in line. I figured I might as well complete that one while all the denim-colored threads were in play and there was still a denim needle in the machine. From completing the first bag I learned how I did NOT want to handle the corners (it was a matter of when to deal with them, not how), which made construction only slightly easier.

17" long x 12" high x 3" deep

I dug the denim straps (discarded from bag #1) out of the trash, un- then re-stitched them right-side-out (no turning required) and applied them to this bag. Folding 3 layers of denim in half and trying to stitch them down is a bee-yotch! But stubbornness (and a strong needle) prevailed.

I particularly like my use of two jeans zippers to enclose this bag. That was a detail I'd completed before stashing this away for years. I'm fairly certain I used up two new zippers for this, as I had quite a stash of those as well (I used to sew clothes for my boys when they were little).

I've no idea how I'll be using this bag, but it seems a good size for throwing together an overnight kit. A change of clothes, nightgown and slippers, and a toiletry bag would probably fit quite comfortably in this.

Midway through completing this second bag, I was googling "recycling denim for insulation". I'd donated several yards of denim to a school several years ago when they were holding a collection drive. Those drives don't seem to be as prevalent now, but I found an address for a company that takes denim in all states of disrepair, including scraps (that part, written right on the website, is what "sold" me):

Why was I googling this? Because I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm never going to be making another denim project!

I stole one of Wraith's hiding boxes and filled it to the brim with all the denim scraps I had (I even pulled out and emptied three large plastic bags of strips I'd been collecting/saving for a possible braided rug). Fifteen pounds of denim went into this box.

It didn't cost as much as I feared to mail this to Arizona. I used a 3rd party shipping service (Shippo--they seemed the least confusing of the various sites I used to compare costs) and they cut the cost from $25 (USPS) to under $13--quite a nice deal.  

It feels good to finish two projects this week--one old, one new--and in the process free myself of the literal and mental weight of hanging onto potential projects (all those scraps!) that in reality would never come to fruition in my remaining lifetime.