Alyssa Milano's Pants

Save the Turtles

to be auctioned off for the National Wildlife Federation

I finally finished the first of the bags I am making from Alyssa Milano’s pants for my Gulf Project. I would have finished last month but my in-laws were here and things just got so busy. Here it is and I totally dig it even though it was a pain in the ass to finish it off.

Most bags I make are pretty simple. I thought this one was going to be simple too, but I was wrong. Sometimes upcycling demands a bit of creativity, patience and brut force. Pants were designed to be pants, not bags. The way things are cut is to accommodate a body with curves and angles. It can be hard to find or create the straight lines I want for the bags.

The fabric is awesome! I love the texture, it’s soft and almost oily to work with (very fitting).  I didn’t actually run into any problems until the end. I had decided to use the cuff/hem of the pant legs as the hem for the opening of the bag. Usually this makes the bag even easier to make. Not this time.

I wanted the hem to be straight up and down. There was a bit more flare in the pants than I’d realized. There was more fabric on one side of the fold than the other. I don’t have a big machine to stretch this and make it work. On my little machine it bunched. This meant I had to stitch it in by hand. Not my favorite thing to do!

The bag looks fantastic. I wanted to have a subtle design that related to the Gulf crisis so I decided to do a turtle with a deep green patterned fabric. I really like the fabric, together with the oily black color of the pants I 100% got the effect I was going for. On it’s own it looks like a nice bag with a toned down graphic. When you think about the Gulf you see more. It is now a murky image of a turtle swimming through oil.

I have one more pair of Alyssa’s pants. When I have finished the bag I am planning with those I will organize the auction to sell both bags to raise funds for the National Wildlife Federation.