Jeans to Denim Bag {Simply Done Wright}

Jul 15, 2012

 Hi Y'all... I'm Carri from Simply Done Wright and 
I'm filling in today for Kate here at Creative Cookie.... Nice to meet y'all....I've got a SUPER Tutorial for y'all today that I just love.. I think you will as well... So lets get started....
BOY!!! I'm excited to be here today.... Thanks for having me Kate and thanks for reading, fellow bloggers... I feel like singing the Black Eyed Pea's "Its Gonna be a Good Night"....HAHAHAHA! ~
 I LOVE LOVE this bag and look forward to showing you how to make one for yourself....... I have these bags/buckets everywhere....It's an easy sew.. Here I made a bag/bucket out of a pair of old jeans and some fabric. You can get as detailed or as simple as you like I have 2 versions here..   The bag is perfect for holding yarns, fabric scraps, crafting supplies, and with the jean pockets "inside" the bags are great storage places for scissors, or other crafting supplies. Materials Needed: an old pair of jeans cotton canvas or upholstery weight fabric * very important) denim sewing needle for machine a piece of cardboard hot glue gun permanent marker rotary cutter or scissors
 1- With the jeans buttoned, cut off legs just below the zipper or pockets.  Set the legs aside you'll need those later.  This will determine the depth of the bucket
 2-Turn the jeans inside out.  Most jeans will flare at the hips ; you want your bucket to be straight from the top down, so I first took a measuring template and as you can see the black marker- I drew a line from the top of the jeans to the bottom to make the bucket more of a cylinder shape.
 Once you've marked the sewing lines then pin them and sew down these lines and cut off excess fabric and bulk. 3- Measure the height and width of the jeans tube and cut your outer fabric to the same height +1/2 inch at the top for a seam allowance , and the same width plus 1 inch.  To get this measurement lay the jeans flat and measure side to side and double to get the width
 4-Pin the right side of the outer fabric to the wrong side of the top of the jeans with a 1/2 inch overlay; stitch this down over the top of the existing waistband top stitching. (Let me just confess now for whatever reason my brain doesn't wrap itself around this concept and I ended up having to redo this step...so really look and make sure that when you're done sewing the outer fabric is on the outside the the right side of the jeans is on the inside..So it takes me a minute to figure things out... it's part of my charm! *smiles*
 5-Cut a piece of the leftover legs in a circle approx. 1/2 inch wider all around than the opening for the jeans at the bottom. This will be the bottom of the bucket.  Here's how you figure out what you need to do to cut this precisely.
* Multiply the width of the jeans by 2 to get the circumference.  Divide this number by Pi. (3.14) to get the diameter.  Divide that number by 2 for the radius to get the measurement for this compass.  You can use a scrap piece of cardboard for this; remember to add 1/2 inch to that measurement.  (I assure you it's not as difficult as it sounds. If I can do it anyone can....really)
 extra jean leg #1 circumference for bottom of bucket cut this out and start pinning to inner and outer layers of bucket bottom.  Then stitch it down with a 1/2 inch seam allowance making sure you are sewing through all 3 layers of fabric. The raw edges should be at the bottom of the inside of the bucket.
7-Cut a cardboard circle to fit in the bottom.  Take the other leg of the jeans and cut it 1/2 inch larger than the cardboard circle and hot glue these 2 pieces together.  Insert this inside the bucket as the base of the bucket and to hide the interior seams at the bottom of the bucket. 
You now have an AWESOME recycled up cycled denim bag/bucket whatever you want to call it...  for a multitude of uses.  Bottom line it's easy to make, durable and useful... I added handles to my one bag and did not to the other... it's up to you... what you prefer...




 I just love this bag.. I'm sure you can use a bag like this for a zillion things.  Go forth and make bags... (smiles) I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.. and make yourselves or someone you care about a bag for something special. XOXO Carri


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How fun!!! This is a fabulous idea - thanks for sharing, Carri!
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