Recycling leather - basket

When tidying up some boxes with old stuff, I fell over my old school bag that later I used also in university. 

It looks old and well used, doesn't it? And I surely won't use it again. Our house has not enough storage space to keep things like this out of sentimentality. But it is hard to through away something you had for a very long time. (And actually I have no idea where to give leather for recycling).

So I recycled it myself. The back, the flap and the leather under the front pockets are thick and stable. I re-used those parts to make a basket! 

This is the old backside. For the handles I reused the old shoulder strap. On the backside I left a rivet from the old belt, so it's more interesting looking at, as that side of the basket is quite dreary.

Here you see the old front side. There are some holes in the leather, where the front pockets had been. I stitched a decorative zig-zag-ladder on them.

The form is a little funny, but round wouldn't work with the material I had.

On the bottom you can see the spots where there had been the sticker and the clasps.

I did all seams by hand after punching holes with a belt punch.

It had been fun making and I like the result very much. The old leather has a special charm! 

For now the basket has a place on our couch table containing all the little things always lying around. We'll see what I use it for in the future.

I am very happy to not throw away still usable material. Now my old bag has a new life!

A bientôt,

Jane