Upcycling Jute Shopping Totes

For years now, I've been using jute shopping totes for my weekly shop, as many people do these days. I've got a selection of them from different stores, probably about 6 or 7 in total. They get used every week and loaded up with shopping. I find them very useful and they are strong and good quality for the most part and have for lasted years.

Lately, however, I've noticed that a few of them were looking a bit worse for wear. Occasional spillages or breakages have taken their toll and a couple of them (the M&S ones in particular) had started to split and unravel a little at the seams. 

I was thinking of investing in some new jute bags, but I didn't like the idea of just throwing the old ones in landfill (as they are coated in plastic on the inside), spending £'s on buying new ones, nor of continuing to be a walking advertisement for any large supermarket. So when I came across the idea of covering them with scrap fabric on Pinterest, it seemed like a good way of upcycling them. 

Now, you might think that this is a pretty pointless thing to do and that I have way too much time on my hands, as they are only used for doing the shopping, but the bags themselves still had a lot of life in them, the handles were still strong and covering the bags would make them stronger still. Besides, I enjoy making scrappy fabric, so this idea gave me the perfect excuse to make some more and use up more of my scraps and fabric stash to cover them and keep them in use.

Here's a photo of one of the bags before I began:

I stitched it up where the bag was coming apart and then set about making a fabric cover for it. I used the same process that I always use for making scrappy project bags, ensuring that the fabric pieces were large enough to cover all sides and the underside of the bag. I did go for darker colours, as the bags do get a bit dirty being lifted in and out of the car, so I didn't think the dirt would show so much if I used darker colours, besides, I had plenty of these in my scraps basket.

Sewing all of the scraps together to cover the two bags that I had took an afternoon. I then pinned the scrappy pieces to the bag ready to stitch them into place by hand, as it was too difficult to do it with the machine, unless I unpicked the whole bag, which would probably compromise it's integrity. Here's a picture of the bags with the new covers pinned to them:

I decided to embellish with hexies and patches, as usual. As you can see from the photos, I will need to bind the edges of the outside of the bags to neaten them off.

The next stage was to attach the scrappy pieces to the jute bag. I decided that the best way to do this was to 'stitch in the ditch' of all the seams where I'd sewn different pieces together. It took a while, but it did mean that the scrappy pieces were firmly attached to the bag and not gaping. I then stitched some black binding around the edges to neaten it all up.  I was very pleased with the result at this stage, it looked much more finished.

Here are some videos of the finished bags.  I say finished, but there is still one very small flower to be sewn on. I did think about lining them, but for the moment I have decided not to, as there is a plastic layer inside the bag, so any spillages could be wiped clean, which seems more practical. I may change my mind at some point, but in the meantime, I'm looking forward to putting them back into use when I next go shopping.