IAN:Thursday 9/26/2019 Old Jeans=New Purse

My daughter has given me at least 6 old pairs of jeans that I squirreled away, along with an equal number of Mr. Zen’s ratty ones.  I always planned to use them somehow.  I did use the back side of one of his as the outside pockets of a market basket I made.  This purse is the next thing I did, but with Lil Zen’s much smaller pants.

All the pockets shown are usable.  Because I wanted to use them, the size of the bag was determined by assuring there were seam allowances.  It is actually too big for my everyday use, but a fine bag for an overnight trip, or small shopping trip.

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I love the way this waistband looks sewn on the back of the purse.  The “v” in the middle adds interest.

Back

This is the layout I started with.  I cut off the entire left side, from the edge of the zipper in front to the seam in the back.  Then I cut the waistband off to reattach straight and cut the whole piece for the purse.  It wraps around in the middle with no seam.  This was the longest straight piece I could cut out of what I had.  Lil Zen is very petite.

1)Full pants/2)Left side cut off/3)Left side cut to size, waistband removed

These are the pieces I needed to make it. I cut all of these from this same pair of jeans except the “v” shaped waistband which came from another pair I used earlier.  I also cut a long piece for the strap, not shown here.

Pieces cut from jeans

This is the lining piece.  I sewed in a zippered pocket on one side and a three space pocket on the other.  This just set into the bag, going over the top zipper to make it all smooth inside.

Lining with pockets

Here is the finished inside.

Inside

So here again is the completed purse.  I watched a few videos to get a handle on what to do but

Completed bag

in the end, it was mostly how I wanted to do it.  Lil Zen was quite impressed with it, so that made my day!  I plan to make another but smaller one.  I also can make a rag edged quilt with jeans squares.  Whatever I do, I want to use these up and get the space back for other things.  As if….