A WILTSHIRE businesswoman has come up with a clever way to turn old leather sofas into stylish accessories.
Lisa Crick has pre-loved couches donated to her for free and uses their material to make handbags, totes, messenger bags and luggage.
The 53-year-old from Dilton Marsh tries to use every part of the furniture she can to avoid any of it going to waste, and gives away sofa stuffing for free for people to use for draught excluders or dog beds.
The New Baginnings businesswoman loves to try her hand at making bags from all kinds of materials and has created products from a hot air balloon and carpets.
The grandmother gets all her fabric and materials donated or given to her by charity shops for free and sells her bags on for anywhere between £25 to £200.
Lisa said: “I love the challenge of different fabrics. Every fabric that comes in teaches me something else.
“I use waste material so there is no fear of it going wrong as it was going to landfill anyway.
“I think everyone can relate to a sofa as we’ve all sat on one.
“I turn them into beautiful bags. The sofa bags are flying off the shelves. I see people with my bags I get such a sense of pride.
“Never in a million years did I think I’d be here.”
Lisa tried her hand at sewing in 2018 when her 60-year-old husband, Dave, asked what she was going to do with the waste material from the curtains they had changed.
She said: “I just said ‘I’ll make luggage’.
“I made the bag from a standard pattern but was surprised how much additional fabric went into it which defeated the purpose.
“I turned to Pinterest and tried making denim bags and continued to play around with different fabrics.”
The ex-fitness instructor had more time to explore her sewing skills when the pandemic hit - and by the time lockdown had ended, she had decided to pursue her bags as a business.
She first sewed with leather when she got her hands on some waste material from her local Clarks.
Lisa said: “I got started from there. Then a friend asked if I fancied a leather chair.
“I then started looking on Facebook Marketplace and collected sofas people were giving away for free.
“One woman loved the bags I made so much she wanted to buy one from her own sofa that she had given away for free.”
Lisa spends a day stripping and cutting sofas before sewing the material together.
The amount she can make from the furniture depends on the state of the material, but she can make up to nine bags from a sofa and chair.
She said: “Until I strip it, I don’t know what I’m going to make from it.
“I’ve realised I am passionate about waste and I’m conscious of how much we do waste.”
Lisa currently has 10 crates of leather ready to be sewn together into her creations.
She sells her bags from a starting price of £25 for a one-off unique bag and charges £65 for a upcycled leather sofa messenger bag or £75 for a tote.
She estimates she has saved 20 sofas from landfill since October 2022 and sews six to 10 leather bags a week.
She said: “It’s a well-paid hobby but I’d have to make a lot of bags to get a lot of money.
“It’s not about the money for me. Each bag comes with a label to tell you what it was in its previous life.
“I really enjoy what I do. I’m so proud of the bags I produce.”
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