My husband has quite a number of old jeans that are not good enough
to give away to people who can wear them but still good enough to be something else.
So, I disassembled three of his jeans pants and made two bags,
a big hand/shoulder bag and a not too small back pack.
Here, I am going to share the backpack.
Inspired from this Youtube tutorial, I made one my own -sewed and modified.
No stick glue needed.
I don't trust glue in keeping the back safe to carry around.
Thinking about it brings me to a scene of falling stuff in the middle of the jungle,
water bottle bent or worse, emptied or house keys missing. Lol!
Instead of straight, I made the top edge tapered and the bottom area semi-cercilar. And I did some blunders, which I am going to enumerate, along with some tips so you don't fall for the same mistakes, at the bottom part of this article.
Here are some pictures.
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| The front part of the bag. The string is my old shoe lace. The blue lining and the pocket are from my husband's short pants |
To make this bag, you need the following:
- 2 pieces of jeans cloth of your own measurement/size (this one is 11 by 12.5)
- a long 4 inches wide and 32 inches length cloth that would serve as the middle section of the bag
- 2 pieces of 1.5 inch bias cloth for side piping
- 1 piece 2.5 inches bias cloth for top edge piping
- 1 piece shoe lace
- colorful threads
- 1 button (I used the button from one of the jeans pants)
- 2 pieces of 3 x 25 fabric for handle
- 1 7x8 fabric for cap and a bias cloth
- one 5 inches piece of bias cloth for hanging (the one right in the middle of the two handles)
- a rectangular piece of cloth for inside pocket
- sewing machine
- sewing needle
- scissors
- tape measure
- pen or marker
- ruler
- needle pins (optional)
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| ~The black lining of the handle is the string of the short pants which I just added on one side of each handle to make it wider~ |
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| Inside are tablet phone, kindle, and mobile phone. This bag can also hold a 1-liter water bottle. |
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| The holes for the string. Each hole is hand-stitched with different colors of sewing threads. |
In the video, only two holes are suggested for each side. I suggest that you do the same (remember the blunder I mentioned earlier).
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| ~string holes at the side~ |
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| ~I let the chair wore the bag for the time being.~ |
Tips in making this project:
- Decide which part of the bag is the back side so you can sew the inside pocket there. The inside pocket should be folded twice at the opening so that no broken threads would be visible. The three sides should be folded once while sewing it to the middle of the 11x12.5 fabric.
- Since I used a ready-made pocket for the out part of the bag, I just sew it in the middle of the front part of the bag.
- With right side attach one 11x12.5 fabric to one edge of the 4x32 fabric using needle pins and sew. Remove each pin as you sew along. When you reach the curve side, make 3 to 4 small slits half an inch apart so as you continue sewing, the fabric also comes along.
- Do the same on the other side of 4x32 with the other 11x12.5 fabric.
- Sew in the bias cloths at the edges (see the blue edge lining of the bag). While doing so, remember to attach one end of each handle at the back side of the bag so you don't need to remove the stitches on that part later on, which what happened to me.
- Make the necessary string holes and stitch around it using blanket stitch or buttonhole stitch.
- Attach the other ends of the handles in between two string holes on the back side of the bag. On top of it, sew in the cap with the right side upside down. Watch the video for clarity.
- Put the shoe lace and your bag is ready.
- I added a button right above the outside pocket and added a hook for it that is sewn at the center edge of the cap. You can make a buttonhole there instead of a fabric hook.
The bigger bag that I mentioned will be posted soon -once I finished adding a zipper to it. :-)
