Re-purposed: From Shirt to Purse for Sinter Klaas

This fall my son bought a hooded shirt from RetroFit similar to the one pictured here. I was not in favor of the purchase, but our exchange daughter, Mirjam was with us, and it's exactly the kind of style that she adores. All it took was one washing to render it one size too small, so Denver decided to repurpose the shirt and make a purse for Mirjam out of it as a gift for Sinter Klaas Day. Of course she loved it!

Here are all the parts we cut from the shirt to make the bag:

The front and back will become the body, the sleeves will be the handle, the hood is to become an inside pocket, and the ties are to be loops to hold the handle.

We even kept the tag!

Because the weave is so loose, we cut a cotton lining for the inside. Here is Denver sewing the lining.

We added the hood to the inside of the lining, stitching it down, creating some "pockets" to the inside. I thought a hooded purse was a great idea- when your arm wears out, you can carry it from your head- but Denver didn't like the idea.

We made the ties into loops at the side. It will hold our strap. We sewed our straps with a button on both sides to add a cute little detail.

 Here is our bag finished.

Here is what the inside looks like. Like the way we reused the tag?

Here is the finished bag:

Here is the poetry that went with the gift:

Mirjam Bauer, she sat in her tower, wondering when she could come,

To America the great, for this she must wait, and say her adieus to her mum,

So she got on a plane, with pilots named Jane, and flew off to the great New York City,

But the flight course was off, and the passengers scoffed, while the pilots all laughed at so witty,

A joke they had played, to those who had stayed, aboard the flight “joke is on you”

So they headed due west, as no one had guessed, to drop off the cargo with glee,

While some had jumped ship, with chutes on the hip, they charged a substantial fee,

So Miri was stuck, to trust in her luck, and be dumped off wherever they chose.

So when she arrived, she said with a sigh, this place will do I suppose,

When she placed down her head, on the thing we call bed, she found something odd in her pillow!

Numbers were hidden, to a code that’s forbidden, unlocking the present awaiting…

Mirjam finally opens her Sinter Klaas gift:

Thank you, Mirjam! It was a wonderful 3 months!