DIY Suitcase

Hello lovelies,

So this is a vintage up-cylcying project I completed early this year and thought I would share how I did it. Unfortunately I do not have a before picture but after’s are down below. It was brought from a charity shop and was originally dark blue leather and very dirty and smelt inside.

Step 1 for your perfectly clean suitcase: Rinse out with warm soapy water and leave to dry overnight

Step 2: Buy some paint (the furniture one is usually good but not too thin otherwise you will have to do a lot of layers) and get a decent sized paintbrush

Step 3: PAINT! There’s really not that much else to say. I wouldn’t recommend a roller for this though as it drys patchy. I think I did around 2 or 3 coats of the paint letting it dry in between. Only paint around the edges of the inner suitcase as you will be putting the fabric here

Step 4: Measure the amount of fabric you will need. I already had this floral fabric in my sewing box leftover so did not need to buy but I would recommend 2 metres of fabric in total. Cut the fabric in a rectangle and place it in to ensure it fits. Make sure there is at least a 2cm seam allowance around the outside

Step 5: Use the sewing machine to sew a seam around each corner (4 in total) and some fabric may need adjusting to make it fit tightly whilst doing this. This needs to be done inside out then turn the fabric the right way out (sounds confusing but I promise it is easy when your looking at it yourself). Now create a seam around the top, again using straight stitch and I used white thread by the way

Step 6: Repeat the last two steps for the inside at the top of the suitcase

Step 7: Ask another person (it was my dad who helped) to use the glue gun whilst you hold the fabric in place or vise versa. Put the glue gun around the edge of the fabric and glue to the inner suitcase and there you have your super hand-made lining (I promise it doesn’t take you hundreds of hours). Don’t make my mistake of being slow so the glue dried in between doing these steps

Step 8: This is optional but to make the finished look vintage/retro nothing adds a better touch than a bit of sanding down. It’s so simple all you have to do is take some sand paper and a block of something and make the edges worn until you are happy with them – don’t over do it though as then it will rub off all the paint you’ve just waited for to dry

Step 9: Then decide what you will store in it. I put all my craft supplies for card making and jewellery in it and it sits on top of my wardrobe. Perfect storage solution and looks good. Ticks many boxes if you ask me!

Here’s some pictures of the finished product, and I hope you enjoyed finding out the sorts of things I like to up-cycle.