My Bag, My Story: Upcycled Fashion Workshop

A series of workshops for young people aged 12 to 25 years old.

Thursdays:

3:30-5:30pm, 12 Feb

3:30-5:30pm, 19 Feb

3:30-5:30pm, 26 Feb

3:30-5:30pm, 5 Mar

3:30-5:30pm, 12 Mar

3:30-5:30pm, 19 Mar

Participants will transform old pairs of jeans into unique handmade tote or backpack designs, learning essential sewing and appliqué techniques along the way. Each bag becomes a personal artwork, a functional piece that expresses memory, identity, and creativity. Participants will design and attach fabric appliqué squares representing meaningful moments or symbols from their lives. For example, a blue square might signify the ocean from a childhood trip, while a patch of plaid could evoke family or tradition.

Why Upcycled Denim Bags?

An old pair of jeans carries stories. Denim is a fabric that remembers: softening, fading, tearing, and shaping itself around the body over time. Every crease and worn edge become a quiet record of lived experience. In this way, denim is like a second skin: it holds traces of movement, labour, and life.

Transforming an old pair of jeans into a bag invites participants to explore storytelling through fashion, not through words, but through materials. Fashion functions as a cultural language, communicating identity, belief, and history. It is a visual form of communication that both reflects and shapes culture.

Each participant will select a pair of old jeans from a shared collection. They won’t know who once wore them, but their choice will be guided by intuition- drawn to a particular shade, texture, or pattern of wear. In doing so, they connect with an existing story before reimagining it as their own.

Once their bags are sewn, participants will decorate them with fabric swatches and appliqué squares, each representing a personal memory or symbol. The result is a layered creation, a blend of past and present, collective and individual narrative, where every bag becomes a unique reflection of its maker. The bag itself carries a double meaning, as each participant quite literally carries their story on their back (or shoulder).