Tine Sews: The Guatemalan Huipil Upcycling

Wow, I haven't been sewing for a while and also I haven't made a bag in ages. Strangely I did much more difficult bags with different closures and zippers in the begining of my sewing life, than what I'm doing now, when I sew a bag. Lately it's all been about the simple tote or a backpack, which was partly for work and partly for fun.
But yesterday I finally finished the upcycling of a bag I made a while ago and which didn't get any wear, because it was totally impractical.

See the before here:

I made this from a vintage Huipil from Guatemala, which I got for just three Euro at a flea market in Schenefeld. A really cute lady sold it to me and told me how her son brought it from Guatemala. The Huipil had this lovely woven cloth as a yoke and arms and the body of the Huipil was made from handwoven cloth, but it was a very stiff material and when I wore it, it looked totally wrong. So immediately I thought of turning it into a bag and because I didn't want to destroy any of the woven part, which was basically a wide cross, I used the hole for the head as the opening of the bag - bad idea!

The bag rarely got used, because I just couldn put anything in the bag. The opening was way to small and the shape just off. So two weeks ago I decided to upcycle this bag and used the seam ripper to get the shape of the Huipil yoke again.

I was left with these pieces and started to play around with it until I had the idea to make a backpack from the yoke and use the hole for the head as a detail on the front of the backpack. And I even had a suitable zipper, so that I could make a pocket as a nice detail.

This is the finished result and it's so much more practical than the bag I made before. Sometimes you gotta think twice, before getting on with an idea and sometimes you just need to rip something apart to get a result you love.

The bag matches my new denim dress perfectly. I might adjust the flap though, because it tends to gape a bit. I might add a drawstring on the top of the backpack, but am not sure yet. The size is perfect now, because I can carry a lot of books, fabrics or my work stuff in there.

What have you been upcycling lately?