Shirt Sleeve Wine Bag

This December, I'll be a vendor the Cleveland Flea Holiday Show so I've been working on new project ideas. In keeping with the theme of my business, Finderie, everything I make for this show will be based on upcycled materials. I hope to share many of those projects with you here.

My first project was making a wine gift bag out of a thrifted shirt sleeve. Plaid shirts come in lots of great holiday colors so I've been focused on making these gift bags out of upcycled shirts. For my first project I chose a boy's shirt as it was smaller and required less altering. I love how it turned out and that it's not only upcycled but also reusable.

Project Steps:

Step 1: Source a shirt from a thrift store or your family and friends. Be sure to wash and dry it before you get started. Cut off both sleeves at the seam where they join the body of the shirt. 

Step 2: Slip the sleeve over a wine bottle making sure the cuff is at the neck of the bottle. Fold the cuff over until it looks the way you want it to. Using pins, mark where the shirt sleeve needs to be taken in on the side and mark the bottom of the bottle.

Step 3: Leaving the pins in, remove the sleeve from the bottle. Cut straight across the bottom of the sleeve where you marked it with the pin, leaving at least a quarter of an inch extra length for seam allowance. When you're done, remove the bottom pin.

Step 4: Most sleeves will be too wide and will need to be taken in so they aren't too baggy. Use the pin where you marked the start of where the sleeve needed to be taken in as a guide. The sleeve could be taken in by cutting along the seam and sewing a straight line from the bottom to the point marked with the pin. I chose a slightly different approach as I liked the way the finished seam looked on the shirt and wanted to keep it. With the sleeve right side out I started at the bottom and folded the extra fabric into the inside of the sleeve until the bottom formed a straight line up to the top pin. I made sure the fabric on the back side lined up perfectly to the existing seam and then pinned all the way up to the top pin marking where the sleeve needed to start being taken in.

Step 5: With the new seam pinned, I sewed straight down the side over the top of the existing seam making sure not to catch any other fabric from the sleeve in my new seam.

Step 6: To reduce bulk I turned the sleeve inside out and trimmed away the excess fabric I had folded into the inside of the sleeve. 

Step 7: At this point it was necessary to re-trim the bottom of the sleeve because it wasn't quite straight anymore. I did this removing as little fabric as possible. 

Step 8: With the side of the sleeve finished it was now time to cut a bottom for the bag and sew it on. Typically the left over fabric you removed in step 3 will be enough to use for the bottom. Find a cup to trace around that is slightly larger than the bottom of a wine bottle - this will give you automatic seam allowance. I found that a Solo cup worked well. Once you've traced the cup with a marker, cut out the circle.

 

Step 9: The circle now needs to be attached to the bottom of the sleeve. Before you start this step make sure your sleeve is inside out. I find it's generally easiest to do this by putting the first pin to the seam. Be sure you are pinning right sides together. Then, fold the sleeve in half and mark a crease directly across from the seam. Pin the opposite side of the circle to the crease. Then line up the other two sides so they are positioned between the two pins leaving you with 4 pins total which should be spaced in quarters around the circle. Make sure to line up your seams so they are even.

Step 10: Add at least 4 more pins between the existing pins to keep everything secure.

Step 11: Now you're ready to sew the bottom to the sides. Leave at least a quarter inch seam allowance and sew around the circle slowly and carefully to make sure you catch both sides of the fabric as you are sewing. You also want to check often while you're sewing to make sure you aren't accidentally grabbing any of the sleeve sides in your bottom seam. 

Step 12: Flip the bag right side out and slide it over a wine bottle to ensure it fits. When you're done, use the other sleeve to make a second wine bottle gift bag. Be sure to save the body of the shirt as we'll be using it in a few other projects in the future.