Upcycling: How to cover up logos on shopping totes – part 5

Today we will continue our popular series on how to cover up logos on bags with an example of a turtle shopping tote which we recently made. The shopping bag had a big logo on its front side which we hated and so, being turtle and tortoise nerds, we decided to hide it under a tortoise. 😀 This tortoise design is also a very good example of what one can still do even with tiny scraps of fabric, since the tortoise’s scutes (shell plates) consist of tiny remnants of fabric from other projects, which we sewed on top of each other in a decorative way using an embroidery stitch on our sewing machine. The tortoise’s shell and body parts consist of somewhat bigger scraps of fabric from old garments.

The tote also had a slogan printed on its handles, which we covered with a textile gift ribbon in a matching colour. Finally, we embroidered a face and some lettuce on our tortoise design. 🙂 In our opinion, this is a design any turtle or tortoise nerd of any age will love.

Turtle patchwork blankets made from old fabrics

These are two upcycled turtle blankets that were made using fabrics from old clothes and home textiles. The turtles themselves were made from tiny scraps of fabric (fabric rests from other upcycling projects). The colourful blanket with the three-dimensional turtles is surprisingly heavy (c. 5 kg/10 pounds!) due to the wadding of the turtles, and it was therefore decided not to wad the blanket itself. The turtles were filled with re-used polyester filling from old cushions. (As polyester is a very bad material from the environmental point of view as it is derived from oil, we try to avoid it wherever possible and do not buy any new materials made from it). The beads used for the turtles’ eyes are from an old necklace. The blue blanket is lined with a medium-thick cotton flannel fabric since we didn’t want to use the conventional polyester lining that is sold everywhere and which is harmful to the environment.