The Anatomy and Physiology of a Rag Bag

Otherwise known as 
"The Adventures of a Recycler!"

The ALMOST Finished Oceans Rag Bag!

I've blogged about my adventures as the consummate recycler, upcycler, repurposer, thrifter, (whatever the current P.C. term is!) many times before, and I will no doubt do it again many times.  That's because these adventures always lead to interesting experiences, people, "FINDS!" and ultimately some new ideas and possibly the creation of something special!  Of course, sometimes the results are disastrous; but sometimes they yield something quite unique - or at the very least, something that evolves over time.  And sometimes, I'm left with a huge amount of new material/materiel that I end up donating back to some worthy organization with hopes that someone else will find a creative or functional use for them.

A mess of bias strips

Yesterday I met a new friend for coffee!  I had met her at a concert recently, and we discovered that they were new to our area, that her husband and mine had played golf together, and that she was a artist!  Upon meeting her yesterday, we also discovered so many affinities and similarities in our stories (both good and bad!) and her love of thrifting.  Well, I offered to do what someone else had done for me when we were first in Wilmington.  So.....we will plan a thrifting day soon.  I'll come back to the story about how I was introduced to the thrifting scene here!  It's a good one!

The first rows of knitting

But I digress..........! What else is new?  The Silk Rag Bag!  As many of you know, I put out a call amongst my friends for their cast-off silk and silky scarves - with the intention of making the Rug Bud Bags.  They proved to be entirely too labor-intensive, strenuous (I now have tennis elbow in my LEFT arm, and I am right-handed!), and time-consuming to possibly sell in this area.  In addition, I was not at all pleased with  my skill at constructing the rest of the bag after the front was completed.  Better knitter/crocheter than sewer!

The beginnings of the crocheted back

So....I decided to revert to an older idea - that of KNITTING the bias strips of silk together as I've done with earlier Rag Bags  They too were difficult to knit AND to sell, although all of the ones from that era have sold.  I realized that silk would knit up much more easily, because it's not as thick as batik and it slides/glides more easily.  It was indeed easier!

Lining pinned in

The process is the same: bias cut the scarves and other donated or thrifted garments into strips, knot them together, and knit.  I created a squarish shape of hand-knitted knotted silk strips, added a crocheted back of coordinating yarns, lined it with a pocket with material cut from a silky nightgown, added a vintage button and closure from the straps of a silky camisole, and crocheted a strap with additional knotted bias strips.

Et voila!