Umbrella Upcycle

As I mentioned in my post about sourcing fabric, there is so much material to work with.  And it is all around. 

I had a broken umbrella. Don't we all? 

I tried fixing it, but a couple of the metal pieces were broken. While I sew, I don't weld. I liked this umbrella quite a bit and it had actually lasted a long time. The fabric was pretty and it seemed like it was the same type of fabric used for shoe bags we have purchased  I thought I could use the broken umbrella to make shoe bags. Then the pandemic hit and we didn't have anywhere to go so I put the umbrella aside. 

About a year later a friend of mine posted on Facebook asking if people used shoe bags and whether they had recommendations. I said, I can make you a couple!  I made two and then I put out a call on Facebook for people's broken umbrellas and I made some more. 

Here is a description of what I did. 

First locate broken umbrellas. If you put out a call to your friends and you don't live in the desert, you will probably get more than you need. If you have multiple umbrellas you can coordinate colors. Using a seam ripper, detach the umbrella from the metal frame. Then use a pair of scissors to cut the fabric from the center piece.  

The fabric you take off the umbrella frame will be, well umbrella shaped, so if you are going to make it into something else like a shoe bag, then you will need to use a seam ripper to take apart the sections. The umbrellas I have deconstructed have had between 8 and 10 sections and they have all been pretty easy to pull apart. 

Take two of the triangle sections and lay them on top of each other The narrow points of the triangles will need to be on opposite ends.  It probably won't matter which is the right side and which is the wrong one. From there sew a seam. I have used both French seams and a serger for these shoe bags. You will find that your seams are likely curved a little which you can trim by hand or while you serge.

Open up your seam and cut your now larger piece into a rectangle. I made a pattern that was about 12X16 and I didn't worry too much about lining up the pattern with the grain. Repeat with another two sections of umbrella to make another rectangle. If you are using an umbrella with narrower sections, you may need to layout multiple triangles in alternating directions and cut your rectangles from bigger pieces.  

To make a drawstring bag, make a 1/4 inch fold at the top and along the very top, fold over another inch and top stich down. That will be the channel for your string. 

Take your two rectangles and pin or clip. If you are making a French seam, you will start wrong sides together, then start stitching under the string channel and go around the rectangle to the bottom of the other side of the channel.  If you are going to serge or finish the seam with a zig zag, then you can put it right sides together sew then turn inside out. 

Cut two cords that are a few more inches than needed to go around the bag start with one of the open ends and using a safety pin, feed the cord through the channels on both pieces of fabric. Tie the two ends together. Start the other cord on the opposite end and do the same.

And there you have a shoe bag!  Here is another example using fabric from two different umbrellas.