I turned my couch into a shoulder bag

Les and I got a new slip cover for our glorious hand-me-down IKEA couch last December and I could not bring myself to throw away yards and yards of lovely white canvas. I'm not sure what I thought I was going to make with it. A boat sail?
Anyway, after many MANY canvas-inspired ideas but little follow-through, I decided I would make a bag. An easy, cool-looking bag that I could use to stow my unattractive Fancy Camera bag and still have room for all my other essential stuff. It had to be a project that would not require me to spend a lot of money on additional supplies, and it had to be something I could complete in one weekend. I searched for online freebie instructions until last week, when I saw THIS tutorial on How About Orange.

After a quick trip to JoAnn for some 60% Off faux leather for the straps (PS - faux leather NEVER goes on sale, so I was elated to get 1/2 a yard for $7), some heavy duty thread ($3), and a box of gray fabric dye ($3 each), I turned this:

Into this:

While not as chic as the tutorial version, it did use a substantial amount of canvas. And after 2 dye attempts, I finally got it the shade of gunmetal I had been aiming for. As long as you don't count the vaguely pink splotches that I assume are the result of couch stain removal attempts that perma-bleached the fabric. I think it just adds a certain "hand dyed" marbling mystique. Right? Um, yeah.

Anyway, the best part about making your own stuff is that you can customize it.
Like the handy elastic Sock Bottle holder I added to the lower side edge:

Spill Proof!

If I were to make this again, I'd go for a different/darker dye color and I'd probably make it a liiiiitttle less tall. It's great for holding all my gear, but it feels a little more shopping bag than a fashion piece. Could be the fact that I had trouble converting centimeters to inches and just eye-balled it. I do have a huge sheet of pretty dark denim that I could use if I want to totally copy-cat the tutorial piece, but it was very gratifying to finally use a hunk of couch to make something practical.

Not the most flattering shot, but you get the idea.

I spent about $19 and have thread and lots of faux leather left over, so I'd say that the only real expense of this experiment was the 2 boxes of gray dye for $6. Plus, I now have a prototype and some trial-and-error insight for my next attempt (which will probably be with the dark denim, since I do LOVE the look of the tutorial version).

So there you have it. My repurposed couch fabric got a new life as a MegaTote. Not bad for an afternoon's worth of work.