Japanese Indigo Dye Tote Bags
Today I wanted to share my indigo tote bags with you and hope that you will feel inspired to make your own at home! My team and I were excited to experiment with various indigo dying techniques and so a couple weeks ago we got messy in the yard of our studio – we dipped, we dyed, we played, experimented and came up with a whole heap of new lovely things in varying shades of that gorgeous indigo dye. One of my favorites were these indigo tote bags. I found these blank tote bags online, they are made from a lovely natural cotton canvas and so pick up the dye really well. Our techniques varied from simple dip dying to experimenting with traditional shibori techniques. Try folding your tote several times and securing it to a block of wood with rubber bands to create rectangular grid patterns or bunch parts of the bag in your hand and secure them with rubber bands to achieve circular patterns. The bands restrict the flow of dye to those areas of fabric resulting in these pretty shapes and patterns.
I added a little extra punch to my totes by adding leather handles and bases to some of them. Just use your seam ripper to remove the existing handles or cut the bottom off the existing bag and sew in a fabric or leather of your choice. This just takes a little imagination and a pinch of confidence so go head and be bold with your creations! I will admit to being slightly in love with all the indigo dye tote bags! I will also admit to not knowing which one I love the best! Show me your indigo dipped projects my uploading images to the comments section below or sharing with me across Instagram, Facebook or Twitter using the #liagriffith hashtag. I can’t wait to see what you have been up to! Enjoy! ~ Lia
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Discussion
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8 Comments
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Rk
February 25, 2018 at 11:35pm
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Lia
February 26, 2018 at 12:50pm
@Rk
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Liz
June 5, 2016 at 1:09pm
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Lia
June 6, 2016 at 11:39am
@Liz
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Hallo
June 5, 2016 at 6:15am
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Lia
June 6, 2016 at 10:03am
@Hallo
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Gina
July 22, 2015 at 7:15pm
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Lia
July 23, 2015 at 8:37am
@Gina
Back to the TopWhat is the exact material used to make the bags? Also is there any alternative for the same?
I linked to the bags, they’re cotton canvas. You could try something else but I haven’t experimented enough to make a recommendation!
I love these, do you know where I could find bags like this with the leather details?
Thanks Liz! I actually used regular canvas tote bags and added the leather details myself. I bought scraps of leather from my local fabric shop and just had fun 🙂
Great idea! Simple and pretty. Perfect:)
Thank you!
Love them all!! Cheers…Gina F
Thank you! It is hard to pick a favorite, I am excited to have one for each outfit of the week;-)