Periodically we have a clothing cull in our house. The kids grow like weeds, and I think we are all pretty hard on our clothes.
Making a recycled pocket purse is a really fun way to recycle old pairs of jeans into something new! I’ve been wanting to try using bleach on a fabric project for a while now, so this seemed the perfect opportunity.
My daughter used textile paints on her recycled pocket purses, as it seemed the more sensible option for a 7yr old.
We gathered all our bits and pieces together. I used thick household bleach for this project, and was careful to wear gloves and an apron. The stamps I used where little cheap rubber stamps – I washed them well after use, and they appear to have survived the bleach unscathed!
How to Make a Pretty Recycled Pocket Purse
First we cut out our pockets from two old pairs of mens jeans. Next time I plan to experiment with different fabrics – this would certainly work with any cotton pockets. I also cut scraps out of the jeans and tried stamping on them first.
I poured the bleach onto folded up kitchen towel as I wanted to be able to load my stamp without saturating it. As you can see in the picture I also used the rubber on the end of a pencil as a impromptu stamp! Once the bleach had done its job to my liking, I popped the pockets through a wash to remove it.
My daughter used a combination of paintbrushes and foam stamps to get the pattern that she wanted. Our textile paint required ironing and then running through the washing machine to fix.
Here are our pockets once they had been washed and dried – we were really pleased with our results. I over-stamped one of the bleached pockets with a black ink to help pick out the flower shape.
We then set about embellishing our pretty recycled pocket purses. You can see my daughter was one step ahead of me here!
We used gems, lace, charms and silk flowers to embellish our recycled pocket purses.
It is definitely a great crafting opportunity to let you inner child run wild.
For more decorating fabric inspiration why not check out our Washable home-made fabric paint or turning stains into dyes tutorials.
10 comments
Awesome idea! And it seems like something even my 4-year-old could do. One question, though. When you say “thick household bleach” what does that mean? Is there a particular brand you use? The only bleach I’ve ever seen was the consistency of water
You can get one which is a little more viscous that water – here in the UK some say thick bleach on the bottle (think its meant to clean to things like toilet bowls) but any will do I would imagine, just easier to splash a thinner bleach!
The bleach “pens” for the little areas work great. It has a thin tip and a plastic eraser sized brush on the other end. The brand I always use is by Clorox. Have fun!
Oh I have never come across ‘bleach pens’ thanks for the tip Dana, I’ll look out for them :)
[…] How to Sunday linky I really enjoyed Craft Invaders Pretty Pocket Purses. I love upcycled crafts and these look fab, so many ideas for personalising […]
Thanks for featuring our pockets – they are a great way to start upcycling without having to do much sewing :)
These are so cute! Great use of upcycling, I love how different you can make them. I’ve not tried stamping using bleach, it looks ver effective though. Love the idea of embellishing further with crochet too. Thanks so much for linking up to #Howtosunday :) x
Thanks Jenny. I have a huge pile of old T-shirts waiting for a new project, so I’m hoping to do some more upcycling crafts soon :)
These are so cute and what an original idea to use pockets, I’ve never thought to use bleach as a stamp but it is really effective on the denim and the lace trim looks perfect with the bleach stamps. I was about to ask how you stitched the sides *doh* that’s all done for you in the pocket! A great idea. Thank you for sharing with me on #Trash2Treasure.
Thanks so much for the linky and kind feedback. We’ll be trying the Sticky Weed fishing game from your blog this weekend :)