Recycled Leather Purse

This is another sewing project that has been laying around for ages. Inspired by the Re-use/ Re-cycle/ Re-purpose spirit within the crafting community online and in California, I thrifted a grey-green leather shirt at Goodwill over one year ago (see pic below). The idea of making a leather purse has been in my mind for quite some time but I did not want to buy new leather for it. I had read somewhere that there are no reliable sources for leather from sustainable and eco-conscious production. Therefore, reusing the leather from a garment that otherwise would end up in a landfill seems to be as sustainable as it can possibly be (I would love to sew a leather jacket as well and am still looking for the perfect leather coat to reuse...). I first had a much bigger bag in mind and had already squeezed all pieces out of the short sleeve shirt. My sister brought custom made bordeaux Riri zippers and some bordeaux fabric which I remembered to have in my stash from Switzerland. I started to work on the project but unfortunately my sewing machine did not manage to do the top stitching the way I wanted to have it (I have a wonderful Bernina at home and work with a not so wonderful Singer here...). I abandoned the project until further inspiration would come. And it finally came to me last weekend: I handstiched the parts that the sewing machine could not handle and made the purse much smaller than originally planned. I lined it with the dark red fabric and added my label (these labels are actually a ingenious birthday gift from my husband - he realized that I needed a label for my crafting projects long before I dared thinking about...).

Voller Stolz kann ich berichten, dass ich mal wieder eines meiner angefangenen Nähprojekte fertig gemacht habe! Schon vor ewiger Zeit hatte ich mal im Goodwill (das ist eine Brockenstube mit sozialem Touch) ein offenbar kaum getragenes, grau-grünes kurzarm Lederhemd gekauft (siehe Foto). Ich habe vor Jahren im Tagesanzeiger gelesen, dass es für Leder im Prinzip immer noch keine sozialverträglichen und tierschützerisch korrekten Quellen gibt. So scheint mir die beste Alternative, Leder zu recyclen. Die Reissverschlüsse sind von Riri und das Futter aus einen Stoffrest. Leider hat dann meine Singer-Nähmaschine, die ich hier gekauft habe beim Einnähen der Reissverschlüsse gestreikt und so blieb das angefangene Projekt liegen... Letztes Wochenende hatte ich dann endlich die zündende Idee und hab die Tasche diese Woche fertiggestellt: viel kleiner als ursprünglich geplant, mit von Hand eingenähten Reisverschlüssen und Pomme & Asperge Label (Ein absolut geniales Geschenk von Peter!).