Super Saturday craft tutorial

Yesterday I got to go to a Relief Society Super Saturday event. The organizer had noticed some of my handmade jewelry and figured I was clever with the crafties and asked if I could teach a class that wouldn’t cost anything and would have some ‘green’ or recycled elements. So I made up a pattern and taught I class on making cute hand bags out of old magazine pages and an old garage sale necklace as a handle. The ladies that attended my class were very enthusiastic about it and we attracted a lot of attention from those who hadn’t signed up with us.

Since I had to make up a handout for the class anyway, I thought I'd do it blog-tutorial style and post it here for you to enjoy too!

Handbag from old magazine pages

Supplies

-Several old magazines, preferably with lots of full color pages and not so much print

- Wide packing tape

- Contact paper (for the lining so I’d recommend a solid color or clear.)

- Accent tape (wide painter’s tape or colored duct tape for down the sides and as trim on the top edge)

- Something fun for a handle

- Scissors

- Hole punch

Instructions

1. First rip or cut out at least 22 colorful pages from the magazines. This will give you a few extra strips to let you play with color and composition a bit later. Look for fun words or images that you might want to have peeking out in your finished bag.

2. Cut each page in half vertically ( so you have 2 long skinny strips) or if the image you like is right in the center you could cut off and discard 1/4 the page off each side instead, but you’ll need to rip out an extra page to make up for the other half a page you would have had.

3. Fold each half page half lengthwise by folding the edges into the center. Fold this strip in half again lengthwise. Adjust your folds to make sure those images that you wanted will show up on the side you will use as the front. Note, the width of the finished strip isn’t as important as keeping the folded edges parallel to each other.

Half page folded in half... and in half again

4. Cut a piece of packing tape just longer than the first strip. Lay it down sticky side up and place the strip with the side you want to show on the outside of the bag, (I’ll be calling that the front of the strip) down in the center of the tape. Fold the tape around the strip being careful to pull the tape right up to the edge of the strip and not stick to itself. Repeat with the remaining 43 strips.

Strip in center of packing tape.

(very hard to photograph BTW.)

5. You will be making 2 panels of woven strips so sort your strips into 2 piles with pretty equal numbers of the same colors in each.

6. Pick 10 strips for the vertical pieces. Trim any excess packing tape from the upper edge. Lay down a piece of the accent tape sticky side up and lay the top edge of the strips on one half of the tape. Make sure all the strip fronts are facing up. Fold the other half of the tape over the strips to secure.

Center on accent tape. Wrap accent tape around top edges

7. Now start weaving the horizontal pieces over, under, over, under the 10 verticals. If your favorite part of the strip is covered by another strip, try saving it for the next row or you can slide it a little bit one way or another. Weave 8 horizontal strips. You will find that the strips sort of wiggle loose, so you’ll need to keep pushing them back in line to keep the weave tight. Once you’ve finished the panel, trim any tape or strips that are sticking out.

One strip do over, under, over, under

Next strip do under, over, under, over……

8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 to make the second woven panel.

9. Cut one piece of contact paper slightly larger than the woven panels. Cut the other piece of contact paper about 1 1/2 inches larger than the woven panels on the sides and bottom (but just even with the top). Before you peel the backing off the contact paper, lay a panel on top of the front side of the larger contact paper and fold and crease it up around the panel. Unfold and lop off a triangle at the corners of the contact paper. Apply contact papers to the backs of your panels. Trim the other contact paper to the same size as its panel.

 

Fold larger contact paper around panel & crease...unfold & cut off (miter) corner.

10. Lay the panel with the larger contact paper front side down and fold the extra contact paper up along the creases you made in the previous step. Now lay the other side back side down onto the first one and stick it to the extra contact paper. You may need to adjust the flaps of contact paper a bit to get everything to lay flat and flush.

Extra contact paper flaps are folded sticky side up and then the other panel is laid backside down.

11. Run accent tape around the sides and bottom. Leave extra at top sides to fold over to the inside for a more finished look.

Hold sides and bottom closed with accent tape…leave extra at top sides and fold inside to finish.

12. Open the bag and pinch the bottom corners to make triangles. This is a bit tricky to explain in words, if that didn’t make sense, think of it as pinching the side seam toward the bottom seem until they touch. The wider the base of the triangles, the wider the bag will be. I usually make them 2 to 4 strips wide. Fold the triangles under the bag and tape them with accent tape the entire length and width of the bottom.

Pinch triangles in bottom corners.

The wider the triangle the wider the bag.

Fold the triangles toward the center bottom of the bag & tape across whole bottom with accent tape.

13. Attach the handles by punching holes in the sides and tying the ribbon.


More ideas I might explore someday:

Make panels and sew/glue on to the pockets of an old purse

Try different widths of strips

Try all solid black strips going one direction for a checkerboard look

Use hole punch around the top and crochet an edging around it using faux fur or other fun yarn

Velcro closures

Magnet closures

Try a button and a loop of something for a closure.

For handles try a string of beads, feather boa, leather belt, ribbon, strip of frayed denim, tinsel, chain, or a handle kit from craft store.

Try big grommets on the holes for attaching the handles

Cut a curve out of the top edge.

Try making a long skinny bag by taping 2 strips together for the horizontal strips.

Use Ensigns to make a scripture case.

Use comic strips, crossword puzzles, Asian newspapers, old grocery bags

Make a re-useable lunch bag, a waste paper basket or magazine holder, cover a tissue box, picture frames…