Dale Leavey of Southold has found a second calling in life: garbage.
“There are things people look at and go ‘oh, that’s disgusting’ but I’m thinking ‘no, look at the colors, it’s beautiful,’” Leavey said.
Leavey, who works full-time at Peconic Landing, began making “upcycled” bags last summer, after a trip to New York City left her in awe at the amount of unused, discarded trash.
“There was all this garbage in the street, and all of a sudden I just saw the beauty in it,” Leavey said.
From candy bar keychains to tote bags made of burlap, Leavey can find a use for many things that most people see as worthless. After she finds something she wants to make a bag out of, she cleans it — thoroughly — and adds lining and zipper.
“A lot of time the thought process takes longer than the actual work,” Leavey said. “Every bag is different, so how long it takes really depends on what I’m making.”
For example, she recently turned a 1942 United States Navy uniform, about to be discarded due to a tear in the sleeve, into clutches. After deconstructing the uniform into several bags, she adorned each of them with one of the patches from the sleeves. Each bag came out a little different, with unique button locations and patches.
“Where a ripped sleeve means ‘throw it away’ to some people, I was able to acquire it and repurpose it,” Leavey said. “I wouldn’t normally cut up a uniform like that, but since it was going to become garbage, I thought I could put it to better use.”
Leavey also recently created a purse for a woman whose brother had passed away using material from an old suit-coat of his.
“She wanted to keep a part of him with her,” she explained.
Leavey takes custom orders, and she is always looking for new materials to work with.
“If I see something I like, sometimes I’ll buy it just for the bag. I’m always on the lookout. I’ve got to be careful or I’ll become a hoarder,” Leavey said, laughing. “I just don’t like to waste anything.”
She credits her salvage savvy to her grandfather, who she said had a “great knack” for reusing everything.
“I grew up watching people not waste anything and thinking that this is how it should be,” Leavey said. “It just stuck.”
Leavey, who does business as Moreland’s Upcycling, sells her products online, as well as at local craft fairs. Her bags range from $6 to $40, from coin purses to totes.
“People mostly s,mile or laugh when they see them, which is exactly the reaction I want,” Leavey said. “It makes people happy not because they haven’t seen something like this before, but in a way, they have. It’s the things they’re familiar with, products they identify with but may have overlooked before. That’s what makes it so fun.”
