If you have some old jeans laying around the house that you can no longer fit into, don’t like, or just never wear anymore, why not recycle them into this really cute oversized bag. I made this denim bag from a few pair of old jeans and an old denim dress I bought from the Boutique [That’s my name for Thrift.]
I have been wanting to do a project like this one for some time and I believe my first run at this turned out pretty good. My goal is to make another one, and post a DIY Tutorial on this blog. I plan to make some changes to the bag the second time around and perfect it a little more, but I think it turned out well enough to share with you. My sister loved it and requested one of her own. Truthfully, I have plenty of jeans around here that I can’t wear anymore. but I wanted to do the test bag on some Boutique items before cutting into my jeans.
After purchasing the items from the boutique, I brought them home and just cut them up, keeping some of the pockets from the jeans and I also kept the collar from the dress to use on another project in the future. I mostly wanted to keep the meat of the pants for making strips.
I wanted the Front and Back of the bag to be about 18 inches, which is pretty large. But I like a big bag. I have a lot of junk to carry. I think I worked on this for almost a full day because I had to work through my pattern. I want to be able to use this bag for a multitude of things , including carrying it as an everyday bag or using it as a gym bag, which can be done easily because of the size. So, I cut 5 strips for the front and 5 for the back. I used two strips for the sides, and also added side pockets to both sides as well as front pockets to the front and back. Because this was my first time trying this, I did not line the inside, nor did I include any pockets on the inside because of the voluminous amount of pockets on the outside. I also cut two strips for the bottom.
You could use this bag for an everyday bag, a gym bag, and probably even a book bag if you reinforced the strap well enough. I used a very strong top stitch thread, which I could not even break. I feel very confident that the bag is sturdy for whatever you decide to use it for.
The handle is approximately 40 inches and 6 inches wide (folded in half). Next time, I will likely make the strap adjustable, even though this one is perfectly fitted for me.
I am looking forward to creating a DIY for this bag. And other bags that I make from denim. So, stay tuned.
For there is always light, if we are brave enough
to see it, if we are brave enough to be it. Amanda Gorman , Poet
[…] I also love the pockets on these jeans. They are big enough to hold my cell phone and when I wore them, my phone was in one of the front pockets at all times. I also like the width of the bell bottoms which I consider a really wide bell bottom. I am so very happy with these jeans. I will definitely be making them again in a lighter denim. I photographed this with an oversized denim bag I made a few months ago. If you missed that post, here it is. Denim Bag Post […]
Vision n implementation are two different things . However, u have both so it places u in a unique position to succeed
Thank you Jallah. Glad u saw the vision and implementation.
Great idea! Denim would make a cool backpack, too!
Thanks Leslie. I agree. That would look great.
So cute!
Thank you!