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My beloved leather jacket becomes a bag

In 1987, I was bartending in New York and saved tip money until I had enough to buy this leather motorcycle jacket at a store in Greenwich Village. This jacket and I had many crazy adventures together, but I haven’t worn the jacket regularly in ten years. Eventually I got the notion that I could turn it into a bag.

But not without help! Enter Maker Faire, and Swap-o-rama-rama, an event where you bring a bag of clothing to donate, then get a chance to rummage through the piles to choose and modify what you find. I donated the clothing, but checked first and got the ok to bring my jacket and a cool skull scarf to do this special mod.

Scatha Allison of Miss Velvet Cream Atelier (and author of Jean Therapy: Denim Deconstruction for the Conscientious Crafter) did the heavy lifting, helping to create my new fabulous bag. We had the help of an amazing industrial-strength sewing machine designed by Ken Gresham of Ray’s Sewing Machine Center.

Click on the thumbnails below to navigate through this set of photos showing how the transformation took place:

This was great fun. I’m really grateful to Scatha for seeing me through this project! It made me want to learn more about sewing so I could take something like this on myself! And I loved that I could re-use something I loved once…but would no longer wear…by turning it into something brand new!

Previously in this category: Pollan Hits Another Homerun: Why Bother?