Upcycled Vinyl Hand Bag

How to recycle an old vinyl banner into a an awesome hand bag.

Lets make a great bag that is

1. Waterproof
2. Strong and sturdy
3. Has cool weird graphics

And in the process

1. Less trash going to the landfill

Materials Used:

1. Vinyl banner
2. Size 110 needle
3. Bound Tex 70 UV Bonded Polyester thread
4. Box cutter
5. Fabric scissors
6. Sewing clips
7. Cutting mat
8. Steamer
9. Marker

We used a Sail Rite Fabricator industrial sewing machine. But, with the right needle, thread and foot, you can use a domestic machine.

We started off with a banner that was a total of 180”x24” long.

The bag will be 12” W x 6”L x 9”D when finished.

Used a ½” seam allowance.

First, cut off the end of the banner that was folded over, that creates the finished edge. This was the 24” length side. On the back side of the banner, starting at the edge just cut, measure 19” along the remaining folded edge. Make your cutting line using a marker. Then, cut along that line.

Starting from the cut edges, measure 3.5” along the folded edge and make a dot. Do this for all four corners. With the cutting mat underneath the vinyl, cut a slit along the folded edge, from dot to dot. Do this on both folded edges.

On each side of the slits, put a reinforcement stitch, so the bag won’t rip and wear quickly. This was done by stitching and back stitching a 1" length, several times at the ends of both slits.

With right sides together, fold the vinyl in half, matching one folded edge to the other folded edge. Used fabric clips to hold the two layers together. The vinyl is too tough for needles to go through. And it can ruin or bend your needles.

Along the raw edge, sew the two layers together at ½” seam allowance. When done, the bag is flat.

To create the bottom of the bag, without having more pattern pieces to sew, open up the bag, and starting at the tip of the seam, pinch it down to create a triangle.

Use fabric clips to hold this down. To make the base be about 6” wide, measure the triangle, starting at the tip, 3” and marked it. Do this to both corners. Then sew along that line.

When finished, trim off access material about ¼" - ½”, so it isn’t bulky inside the bag, once flipped. Reinforce this seam, because this is a pressure point.

The top corners where the side seams stuck out, this area also needs to be reinforced. Sew the seam down, about 1”-1 ½”. This helps strengthen the bag even more.

To flip the bag right side out, use a steamer to warm up the vinyl. This causes it to soften, which makes it pliable to flip, without ruining the bag in the process. Be careful not to aim the steamer at your face, or hands.

Once flipped, you have an awesome bag that you can take to the gym, the beach, pool, gift bag, anything you like!

Other great materials that you can use to make repurposed bags, might be to use broken pool shade structures, tents, floaties, rafts, vinyl tablecloths, raincoats, inflatable mattresses, and much much more! The possibilities are endless!

Each 180” banner makes about 9 bags. We made a total of 60 bags for our volunteers at Repair Cafe!

We hope you enjoy making these bags, just as much as we have!