Old jeans are everywhere on the internet and using the top part of it is an old tale. There are endless items like skirts, bags, and aprons using the top part but what do we do with the lower leg part which is cut off? Months before, when I made my Amelia Ruffled Capris, I kept the lower part to myself, I knew something would light up in my brain and here I am, with the idea of the sling bag! This bag is so easy that you can sew it in just 30 minutes or even less, All you need is the lower part of your jeans and a fabric scrap! You can make as many of them as you want to match with different dresses.
Material Requirements
The lower leg part of your old jeans
Cotton fabric (you can use any leftover scraps you have).
Sewing
Take your materials.
Keep your jean leg over the fabric and mark 3/8″ away from either side for seam allowance. Mark the lower and upper edges and cut it. You will require one more of such piece. Our lining pieces are ready.
Sew the lower edge of the jean leg shut, leaving a seam allowance of 3/8″. This would be the main body of the bag.
Take the two lining pieces and keep them overlapping with the right sides together and aligning the edges. Sew around the sides and the bottom with a 3/8″ seam allowance as marked by the black line above.
Pull the fabric away from each other at the corner of the bag, on its wrong side and mark a line 3/4″ across the corner
as shown above. Sew along the line, making sure to reinforce at thestart and finish. Repeat the steps on the other corner. This would give the bag its three-dimensional shape.
Repeat the steps on the corners of the lining just as you did for the main body.
Your bag and its lining would look like this on the wrong side.
Now keep the bag on its right side and the lining on its wrong side, with its upper raw edge facing the lower edge of the bag and slip the lining over the bag.
Align the raw edge of the lining with the raw edge of the bag and pin all around. Sew the lining onto the bag, leaving a 3-inch gap without sewing to pull out the lining.
Pull the right side of the lining out through the hole.
Push the lining to the inside of the bag and press taut, making sure to tuck in the raw edges. Topstitch over the seam line of the bag and lining to make it neat and crisp.
Now we need to do the strap.
Take two fabric pieces 1 & 1/2- inch wide and 44-inches long. Preferably you can make it longer or shorter.
Keep the two strap pieces overlapping with the right sides together and aligning the edges. Sew along the four sides, leaving a 2-inch gap in the middle. Turn the strap inside-out through the gap.
Press taut and top stitch to make it neat and crisp.
Unpick a few stitches just above the side seams on both sides of the bag, insert the strap by about 3/4″ and pin.
Top stitch to secure.
We are almost done with the bag, let’s do the ornamental bow.
Take two fabric pieces 13-inches long and 1 & 1/2-inch wide. Finish it just as we did the earlier strap. Fold it in three as shown above.
Let’s do the ring around the bow.
Take a piece of fabric, 2-inches long and 1″ wide. Fold the two longer edges towards the wrong side by 1/2″ and press. Fold in half again and sew it shut along the edge. Wrap it around the center of the bow and secure it by a few knots.
You can hand-sew the bow a few inches below the top edge of the bag or even hot-glue it.
Now we need to attach the snap button inside the bag.
Hand-sew the snap buttons at the center on the inside of the bag as shown above.
Your bag is ready!
Anonymous
Friday 25th of October 2013
I have been saving jeans and legs of jeans for crafting and this is probably what I will do. Marlo's, if you have any old shirts with pockets that you can use for the lining, you will have a built in pocket. I did that many years ago and still have that purse. I buy old jeans at garage sales for 25 cents to $1 for this purpose but unfortunately too many of them fit so I put them into my wardrobe. Lol!
onel
Wednesday 9th of October 2013
Simply cute (bonus point with the little bow!) Maybe I can use those back pocket from the jeans for this too :)
Online boutique
Tuesday 13th of August 2013
Nice!!!
Ana Lopes
Wednesday 7th of August 2013
Super cute bags! Thanks for sharing great tutorial!Have a nice week!Hugs from Portugal,
Ana Love Craftwww.lovecraft2012.blogspot.com