Friday, May 1, 2015

Mending the Jute Bag

This is a Township Bag that my sister got for me in South Africa several years ago.  It seems to be a coarse woven jute and although it's two layers, I used it so hard that holes were worn into the bottom corners and the handles were being reduced to strings.

I actually did this mending project a while back, but the photographs I took did not show the mending well, so I tried again with the photos this week.  I'm not sure they're better, but I'm not spending more time on this because the bag itself works beautifully with its sturdy mended spots.


I took some of the stiff yellow fabric from the skirt with backbone and reinforced the handles. I love the texture of the machine stitching.


Then I made a box-shaped bag bottom with several calicos and hand stitched it onto the bottom of the bag with lots of various colors of perle cotton.



My Township Bag has lots more years in it now!  

11 comments:

  1. I was excited when I saw you'd put up a mending post - I love your bag!

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  2. You did such a great job--I love it!! This reminds me that I have a tote bag that was passed along to me from a friend and it needs mending work. Maybe I will look into that this weekend!!

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  3. Oh it's always great to extend the life of an old favorite!

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  4. I agree with Shauna!

    Do "we" have a baby yet? :)

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  5. no baby yet - we have been at the hospital twice now with our packed bags, not knowing if we were staying or not. I wasn't having contractions, but the midwife was following up on some concerns she had. Baby is still quite happy, so she continues in her "red jacuzzi" as Genevieve says. sighhhhh I'm psychologically done being pregnant.

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  6. What an inventive term of Genevieve's! Yes, you must be more than ready to have that baby.

    Soon!

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  7. Good save! And here is to many more years of service!

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  8. This is such an inspiration for me.I would like to buy this product.
    How can i get this product?
    Zarah,Bizbilla

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  9. This is such an inspiration for me.I would like to buy this product.
    How can i get this product?
    Zarah,Bizbilla

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  10. hi Zarah! When I wrote this blog post, I googled around to see if Township Bags were available online. I didn't find anything - sorry.

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