A fun craft thing with jeans

A couple of the boutiques here have shown very expensive purses made out of jeans. They take the top, cut them off, add a base and lining, a beaded handle, and insert a fancy belt through the loops...somehow it is stiffened very, very stiff so it holds its shape...

My then 9 yo had a darling pair of denim shorts with tiny embroidered flowers. She'd worn them so much that the seat was pretty well gone in them, but I had hung onto them thinking I would iron on a patch, but then didn't think it would look right...so they sat in my mending area until she outgrew them. (Sound familiar?)

I decided to make a belt bag out of it or a shoulder bag. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I generally don't carry a purse, but wear a belt bag.

I did not line or stiffen it.

Here's the finished purse:

When I thread the back of the shorts onto my belt, it is a belt bag. I still use a shoulder strap to keep it from opening, as I haven't decided what to do with the opening yet. It works fine like this. I use the strap through two of the front loops. There is no weight on my shoulder this way.

Or, if I wear it as a shoulder bag, I do the strap through a back loop and a front loop, and it hangs right.

So far, I'm getting some compliments on it and people ask me if I've seen the other bags.

There was basically zero cost to me, but a little time. I stitched across the middle seam to make the shorts lay like a skirt, cut the excess, and stitched the leg openings just above the hem so that the vent would still show. This morning, I patched the back on the inside as I felt I would continue to wear this area out. Much of it was already hidden in the seam.

Here's the back:
You can better see how I seamed it and how it was worn out, then patched, but since this is to my body side, no one sees it. It is still nicely embroidered!

I put into the purse one of those purse inserts that you can buy at Bed Bath and Beyond. I already had one. It sort of conforms to the inside dimensions and adds just enough shape. (It is not inside the purse in these pictures.) What a waste to have thrown out the shorts with so much pretty embroidery.

What do you think?
You could go on a hunt at Goodwill for pretty shorts to do the same thing with.

Karin

Originally posted 2009-04-15 09:40:09.

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