Working with reused & Recycled

I’m fairly certain that my choice to use recycled materials, whether it be fabric or buttons or zippers, stems from those moments spent with my beloved grand-mother. For one, it’s economical to buy secondhand materials and also environmentally friendly. Mostly, I love to work with odd prints and color combos! You can’t necessarily find those at your big fabric stores.

Using recycled and reused fabrics in my bags can be challenging. You can’t always find the colors you want or type of fabrics that work best. You basically get what you get and hope people are into it. Sometimes, on the rare occasion, you hit the mother load of fabrics and yell JACKPOT!

- Kasey

This fascination with taking something that’s been rejected or discarded and then making something new from it started at a very young age.

As a young girl, I was babysat by my grand-mother when my parents were at work. My grand-mother was a crafty woman who taught me how to sew and knit. She encouraged that part of myself and kept me a drawer at the bottom of a cabinet. It was all mine and no one else could touch it. This drawer was filled with scrap pieces of fabric and most importantly, masking tape. Why masking tape? My grand-mother wouldn’t let me use needles until I was older. Mostly because I wasn’t responsible with them and grand-pa got a few in his foot walking over the shag rug in the living room. I remember making a doll stuffed with fabric and wrapped in a thick layer of masking tape. A thing of beauty! A masterpiece!  Soon enough, I was no longer allowed to have that because I used so much masking tape. Apparently these things cost money! Something I didn’t really think about as a kid.