Jean Purse - Quick and Easy

If you didn't get a chance to see me on my guest post last Friday, here's what I was showing off:
Today I want to show you how to make a quick and easy purse from discarded jeans - there are several ways to do this and some can be involved.  This way is not.  I love how you can use the front and back pockets for odds and ends like change and chapstick - this is one functional bag! Here we go:

Gather your supplies - the size of jeans determines the size of the purse.  I used child jeans for a child's purse.  You'll need fabric for the liner - I used a curtain panel that I found at a garage sale and knew had potential (I have a slight obsession with using sheets in sewing).

Chop the legs off the jeans and use them to trace around for the size of your liner (cut 2 liner pieces)

Flip the jeans inside-out and sew up the bottom (I used my serger but just a regular stitch with work)

With your lining pieces right sides together, sew up the edges and bottom, leaving the top open

Cut a strip of fabric and jean however long you want the handle to be.  Sew the pieces with right sides together then turn the handle right-side out.  Or you can sew the pieces right-side out if you want a raw edge look

After it was turned I topstitched to make it fun - see the squiggles:

Ok, the boring prep work is done - now for the assembly.  Roll the top of your lining down a couple of times so it won't show a raw edge - you can sew it down if you'd like but I just held it in place. 

Then set the lining inside of the jeans and slowly stitch along the edge of the lining - you stitch through everything like belt loops and such, but beware of rivets (those metal things) - they'll break your needle for sure.

When you get to where you'd like the handle to attach just slide it inbetween the lining and jeans - if you look close you can see how I had to seap rip because I finished and realized I had a purse with no handle - oops!

That's it - you're done!  Easy, right?!  I jazzed mine up a little with a detachable fabric flower (here's my how-to on that) and made a string from the fabric to run through the belt loops.  The flower can be stuck anywhere on the purse or even in the little girl's hair so she can accessorize herself to match her bag.

Here's this one and another one I whipped up for a little girl's birthday - to do the embroidery or anything like it, do it before you sew the bottom of the jeans together.

Children were hovering while I tried to take these pictures (you probably noticed the Little People Bus sneaking into the background) - one in particular stayed the duration of the purse photo shoot constantly asking "are you done" "who's that for" "is it going to be mine" "I love that" - well missy, with that kind of desire, of course it's yours - enjoy!

As always, check out the great LINK PARTIES where I'll be linking.