It's a Green Thang - Repurposed Skirt

I love my google reader!

It helps me keep up with all the blogs I love.  One of my favorites is angry chicken with Amy.  The other day she had this video tutorial (you have to watch, if only for the "sound effects") for making fabric snack bags.  You know, like those old fashioned sandwich bags with a flap instead of a Ziploc?

Anyway, I thought they were so cute and would make up really fast.  But I don't have a burning desire to put food in them.  I was thinking of other things.

Like how Gracie's school has a purse ban due to the chronic illness rampant among middle school girls of not being able to put their cellphones (which are also banned) on the silent or off mode during Algebra.  This ban led to a huge brouhaha (yes, that's a word!) about where they were supposed to store their, um, personal items.  Which led to the policy that the girls could go to their lockers, then to the restroom, then back to their lockers, then back to class.

Gee, when I was in 7th grade, I cannot imagine the number of ways I would have taken advantage of that clause!

Anyway...back on topic...I started thinking that these little bags would be good for discreetly carrying those personal items.  And that, if they were made of the same fabric as the uniform skirts, it would be even more discreet.  (Either that or I've had an attack of the matchy-matchies...but I digress.)

Luckily I had an old hand-me-down skirt from before they switched to skorts, so I have no guilt cutting this up.

Would you believe that this little skirt made this much fabric?

After I ripped out the pleats, cut off the waistband, removed the zipper and button, I was left with a piece of fabric 18" wide and over 2 yards long!

I squared it up and cut it into 5" x 15" chunks.  The bottom was already hemmed, so I just used an overcast stitch on the other short end.  Then I followed Amy's easy instructions for making the bag, and voila!   

(Pssstt...when she says "don't think, just do it" she means it.  I watched the video while I was folding the first successful one because my brain kept trying to override the instructions.)

Luckily Gracie doesn't need this yet, but I plan to give them to a few friends with older daughters, and tuck one away for later.  I could alter the shape a bit for school supplies, and use other fabrics for anything from business cards to party favors.

There is something so satisfying about taking an old item that no one has a need for anymore and turning it into something useful again.  What is your favorite repurposing project?