A friend of mine was always coming to me to patch up the seat of his pants where his bike saddle rubs. It's a persistent problem spot, as any bike commuter or enthusiast knows. We had tried for subtlety by using the same colored canvas as the pants themselves. After 2 or 3 attempts at repatching the same spots, we decided to give bike tube a try.

At the time, I was creating a lot of photography pieces using my sewing machine to bind photographs together. I made Polariod Quilts for my Etsy shop, built by sewing together grids of industrial Polaroids a friend found at an abandoned ship yard in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. I was interested in using my sewing machine to sew unconventional materials, but that experience also gave me some ideas about repairing clothes. After a lot of finagling, I had attached a pretty bunchy patch to my friend's worn out pants. The process might not have been complete success, but it did lead to a better idea: the same friend had been vegan for a few years and really wanted to ditch his pre-vegan leather wallet for something more animal-friendly.

Using the existing wallet's design, I made a new wallet out of bicycle tube. After a few weeks of successful use, I knew other vegans would be interested too. I made another and listed it on Esty. Twenty-two sales, a lot of broken needles and a burned out sewing machine motor later, the Bike Tube Wallet has been retired.

The Bike Tube Wallet might be retired, but the inspiration lives on. Today, True Partners In Craft continues to use recycled bicycle inner tube to create designs that translate leather and feathers concepts into recycled, vegan things of beauty. Not a vegan? Don't worry: recycled inner tube looks good on meat eaters too.

As it turns out, the bike tube patch on the pants eventually rubbed through too. Nothing can stop a hungry bike saddle from eating through your favorite jeans.