Quick & Simple Upcycle Project - Suitcase with Vintage Maps

Recently at a vintage fair I bought a little suitcase - mostly for the contents (more of that another time) but also because even if a bit battered it's quite cute.  I haven't got a completely "before" pic.  It did have quite a lot of paint on it and it wasn't till I got it all off that I thought to take the first pic.

Suitcase - bottom

The inside was completely grotty and I have taken a photo of those stained wrinkly insides ...

stained and grotty insides

So having got the paint off the outside and cleaned the suitcase up - mostly with a cloth and hot soapy water I took out all the horrid stained paper insides which were beginning to peel off anyway.  Any bits that remained stuck, I moistened with a damp cloth then scraped them off and gave the whole inside a good wipe out.  Then I left it to dry.

Vintage map interior

A vintage map interior would be just the job, I thought.  Looking through my map collection, Bartholomew's Firth of Clyde seemed to fit the bill nicely.  I cut the map to fit.  One piece was enough for the lid but the base needed 4 pieces - 3 for the two sides and front and one for the bottom and back.  I had to join one piece on one side mainly to get the bits of map I thought would look best - they don't all join together mapwise but they look reasonably coherent.  
 

new vintage map insides

Of course you could have all completely different map pieces if you wanted.

 

I used some new glue that I got the same day as the suitcase.  It had been recommended.  I opened it and was immensely impressed with the design.  In the centre of the jar was a special place for a mini glue brush - how cool is that!  I used it to glue my map pieces in place and it was excellent.  Here's the finished product ...

Upcycled suitcase with vintage maps

I did it all one evening, let it dry overnight and next day it was ready to use.

Made in York - Saturday 22 June 2013 (Sneak Preview)

Just thought you might like a sneaky peek at some of the things that I'll be taking along to Made in York tomorrow! So here goes ...
 

People & Places Brooch & Map Pouch

Vintage Map Notebooks & Pouches

Vintage Map Badges

"X Marks the Spot" Map Cards & Envelopes

Vintage Sheet Music Cards & Envelopes

Knitted Wire Bird Brooches

Resin Button Brooches

Fabric Necklaces

and more (& some carrot cake but I haven't made that yet!)  So come along and have a great afternoon out - there's lots of great things to see & buy (and eat!).  Here's the details
 

People & Places - New Range of Brooches & Rings Now Available on Folksy

Last year I went to Iceland - you may have seen my blog about it:
http://hippystitch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/icelandic-fish-leather.html 

People & Places Brooch & Vintage Map Pouch

It was a fabulous trip.  And with it's faults, volcanoes and plate boundaries (getting a bit more technical here!) it rekindled my love of geography.  That inspired me to get thinking about maps and then the people who inhabit those places and the things they do.  Inspiration for my new people & places range was born!





So - I have now finished planning & testing and have a new set of people & places brooches and rings - you won't find any two the same!  They had their first outing at the Selvedge Spring Fair in Chelsea where they excited alot of interest and there are now some available in my Folksy shop.
http://folksy.com/shops/SallyStone 

People & Places Brooch - Lady Shopping in Whitby

They involve a certain amount of recycling and upcycling as they use vintage maps and in the case of the brooches, bottle tops.  Each item comes in it's own vintage map pouch.  Usually the pouch relates to the same general area as the map included in the brooch or ring. 

Vintage Map Pouch for People & Places Brooch

 
Some of the maps needed patching as they were quite old and worn.  But this provided another possibility - adding a different geography to a place.  Suddenly an area of heath might appear in a forest - and I liked that idea.  So some of the map pouches are patched.

People & Places Ring

The rings have people in too - often seated - it gets very wearing standing up all the time - especially if you're chatting to a friend or reading the paper!





 

Pop over to Folksy and take a look!
http://folksy.com/shops/SallyStone