An Englishwoman is turning old leather sofas into beautiful handbags as a way to save them from the landfill.

Lisa Crick gets the pre-loved couches donated to her for free, and she upcycles the good parts into totes, messenger bags, and luggage in the space of a week.

She tries to use every part of the furniture that she can, even giving away the cushion stuffing for free to people for use as dog beds or to stop window drafts.

"I am passionate about waste and conscious of how much we do waste," said the 53-year-old who calls her business 'New Baginnings'. "When I see people with my bags I get such a sense of pride."

She sells her totes on a website and in a pop-up store in Dilton Marsh, Wiltshire, England, for anywhere between £25 to £200-and says "the sofa bags are flying off the shelves".

Lisa tried her hand at sewing in 2018 when her husband, Dave, asked what she was going to do with the waste material from old curtains they had replaced.

"I just said 'I'll make luggage'," she recalled. "Never in a million years did I think I'd be here."

She turned to Pinterest, 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 in 2020-and by the time lockdown ended she had decided to pursue making bags as a business.

She first sewed with leather after a friend asked if I fancied a leather chair.

"I love the challenge of different fabrics. Every fabric that comes in teaches me something else.

She then started looking on Facebook Marketplace to collect sofas people were giving away. Lisa can make up to nine bags from a sofa and chair-and has also created products, including a line of aprons, from hot air balloon fabric, carpets, and old jeans.

One woman loved the bags so much that she ordered one made from her own sofa.

She estimates she has saved 20 sofas from the landfills over the last 16 months, and sews 6-10 leather bags weekly to sell from her website-and each bag comes with a label to tell you what it was in its previous life.

"I'm so proud of the bags I produce. It's not about the money for me. I really enjoy what I do."

INSPIRE Your Friends With This Upcycling Handbag Hero…