How to Recycle Fashion

It's all about the plastic bag. We get inspired to use reusable shopping bags and get a lesson on how-to make one out of old clothes. Plus, a glimpse into the world of recycled art and some sweet posts from our Forum members.

Male: Hey what is up Robin. Welcome to ThreadHeads. Female: So earlier this year we got an email from Lisa who told us about a website called morsbag.com. They inspired people to set sowing circles, make re-usable shopping bags and then give them to people for free outside the stores. Male: This was so inspirational. We decided to do an entire an episode to dedicated to reusable shopping bags. Female: So we are here at Buffalo Exchange. They have an amazing program that save 5.3 million plastic bags from going to a landfill. Male: Let’s go check them out. Female: Hi! Welcome to Buffalo Exchange in Williamsburg Brooklyn so we have a program here called Tokens for Bags which gives our customers the option to not take one of our bag in doing so they get a token which represents the cost of our bags which is in nickel and they get to chose one of three charities that we have to donate too. And this summer we are really excited because once we run out of these bags we are going to start carrying bags derived of chlorine which is biodegradable. Hopefully more companies will take a cue from us and do the same. Female: Well this is awesome program for more information checkout BuffaloExchange.com Male: The truth is you can make as shopping bag of any. This week we are hanging out with Rebecca who is going to show us how to do just that. Female: My name is Rebekah Potter rpotterdesigns. I am a painter. I was interested in sowing and profits compulsion just so and so. I like feeling attached to certain things especially you know shoes and clothing and bags and I like to feel like I have to express myself through my designing. So today we are going to make a super cool lawn perfect for your bag shopping tope so the basic shape is going to be kind of a long rectangle in that way you can carry more stuff and you will have to buy a nicer. So you are just going to keep adding pieces one after the other. Go ahead and put them together. I am going to sow this one. Now that we done one stitch we are going to fold it over and make sure one of the sides is flat. I am just going to run another stitch on the top. Now that you have all your pieces sown together you can go ahead and line the back side of it. So what you are going to do is you are going to get a piece of fabric and kind of like so. We are going to lay it down. What we could do is go ahead and attach it by sowing along the edges and then cut off the excess. So one of my favorite things to do is to sow and draw at the same time using a sowing machine. Most of you should have reverse function on your sowing machine. You are just going to reverse kind of pull. You can use a nice clean old loop. Wow! Now at the same time we are also attaching our lining just a little bit better to get a little bit more support so if you have some old pants and you need a bottom for a bag pant leg is the perfect thing to use. I am just going to go ahead and cut this beautiful pant leg up. So to attach it, I am just going to lay the base of my front panel to the base of the nice little bottom here which is our pant leg and I am going to attach it. And then I hold it to the bag and try to see between the two spaces. How much I was going to need, cut the appropriate size and then attach much like I did to make each pant on. So once we have attached it to the part I just attach it to the other side and then I decide to put nice little zigzag stitch for a little detail. I am going to go ahead and tuck the corners like this because I know I am to go ahead and attach the sides of the bag. Our last and final step is we need a way to carry the bags so obviously we need to make a strap. Again, old pants, nice and durable. So I am going to go ahead and cut two even strips and let’s just slip this on to this and then we are going to run line attacking them on each side. Cut off any excess that is unnecessary. More lines on the middle and I will give it a nice loop and also I will give it a little more strength. We are going to go ahead and kind of fold it in half because we are going to place it in the corner in that way we only have to have one strap. Place it right here. Go ahead and pin it where it basically needs to be. So your last step is just to sow each straps to your bag. So now you are ready to go to the store with your fancy new bag that you made yourself out of recycled materials and pickup your goods wherever you shop. Female: Rebekah that is definitely going to come in handy. Male: When we return, more ways to recycle those old plastic bags stick around. (advertisement) Female: Hey, there welcome back. So it is great that we are going to stop using disposable shopping bags. But what about all the once that are still here. Male: The actress Daryl Hannah has an amazing ego blog called DH Love Life. We found this clip where she meets up with a French artist who does some pretty amazing stuff. Male: It is very easy to find when you see this tree everywhere because I was in the in the street in Paris. I start to draw that because it was cheap. I made the drawings and some of my friends here is dressed of professional designer and I need to email. I propose him to use his fashion show as a role of exhibition and he said yes. Male: To watch the entire segment and to check out the rest of Daryl’s videos head over to DHlovelive.com. Female: Now on to the forums where some of our very own Thread Heads show us their take on recycling classic bag. Female: Chelsea gets a name for her pencil case. She made a sweet used plastic bag belt and glass with her new knitted plastic bag purse and I love knitting plastic bags. Male: Have you guys something you have made. Send it to us at Threadbanger.com. Female: Well, that is it for this week. The next week is our Valentines Day special and we are going to mention the unmentionables and celebrate our shows one year anniversary. Male: If you got a special Valentines Day message from somebody email it or text it to us and we will put it on next weeks show. Female: Till then see ya.