Upcycling a pair of jeans into a bag (Part 3)

To make the handles, first cut a 2.5" strip of fabric that matches your inner lining. Then cut a 1.5" strip of fabric from the remaining denim that you have - you will probably have to piece together the denim strips to make one long enough for the length you desire.

Next, layer the fabrics as shown with your batting at the bottom. The denim and lining fabrics are right sides together here. The batting is 1.5" wide, the same as the denim.

Then, line up the three layers and stitch a 1/4" seam down one side of the handle (See photo).

There will be some overhang of the lining fabric when you have finished as this is 2.5" wide and everything else is 1.5" wide. Take the overhang and line it up down the left-hand side of the denim strip and again stitch a 1/4" seam all the way down.

Turn the whole thing inside out using whatever method you can and it should resemble something like the photograph.

Finally, you will have to stitch-in-the-ditch down both sides and attach the handle to the bag using whatever method you wish.

I found that by creating this little triangle you can obtain a neater finish to your handle. I then stitched around the edges of the triangle to secure it in place.

See the stitching?

Finished at last ^_^

This bag is now FOR SALE, please contact me if you wish to purchase this item.

If you have any further comments then please leave a message before you go.

Thank you for looking.

Upcycling a pair of jeans into a bag (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2, which is all about quilting the front and back pieces of your bag.

In the picture you can see that I have cut a piece of batting to go under the front piece. I have left some excess around the edges to account for any stretching of the denim material that may occur during sewing.

For this particular demonstration piece, I wanted to create a shape involving only straight lines and after a little research, came up with the following design. I drew it onto the fabric using an ordinary ballpoint pen and am hoping that the topstitching will hide this fact later on.

Now, it is time to choose an appropriate topstich thread. Here, I have chosen dark purple.

Here's how they turned out. I tried one in purple and the other in pink.

Next, place the two pieces right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam around the edges (apart from the top opening).

Turn the bag inside out and you should have something similar to this.

Next, I 'boxed the corners' as they say with a random 2" box in each corner.

I reinforced the boxed corners with a stitch line close to the bottom edges.

Now, I turned my attention to the inner lining. I cut out two pieces of fabric similar in shape to one of the sides of the bag. I then followed the same process as I did with the outer. 1/4" seam around three sides (not the top), boxed the corners and turned it inside out.

The final step is to place the inner bag around the outer bag and line up any seams so they match. I then stitched a 1/4" seam around the top opening of the bag. I turned the whole thing through an opening at the bottom of the inner bag and voila!

After turning the whole thing through, I top stitched around the top edge one more time to secure it in place.





In the third and final part of this series, I will be showing you how to assemble and attach the straps.

Upcycling a pair of jeans into a bag (Part 1)

For my first 'how-to', I have decided to show you how to upcycle a pair of old jeans into a bag.

£2 charity shop find

First of all, turn your pair of jeans inside out. Then starting with one of the trouser legs, cut along the sewn seam (See my scissors pointing to it!) carefully, so as to keep the cut edge as straight as possible.

Now, open out the trouser leg and you will see how much fabric you have to play with. Here, the width of the trouser leg will determine the maximum width of your bag.

At this point you must decide upon the height of your bag. 
I have chosen a height of 18 inches.

After making the necessary cuts, you should end up with two pieces of fabric as in the picture above. (Due to lighting conditions the colour of my fabric looks a little different but they are the same trouser legs - trust me!).

I should add here that the two pieces are not rectangular in shape. Do not worry about this as they do not have to be - there are no bag police!

In my next post, I will be adding some batting to the back of each piece and quilting them. It is at this point that you can get creative with your stitches!