The other day I realized that I had no purse! Seriously. Sure, I have totes, large ones that are great for when you have a lot of stuff to carry around. But, I don't usually carry around a lot of stuff. I've got my Combo, keys, cell phone, camera, lip balm, and that's pretty much it. I'm a low maintenance kind of girl. ; )
Baby girl has her own cute little diaper tote but it was time for me to have something of my own! I let my boys choose the fabric I would use. Not totally liberally here. I gave them 2 to choose from. Chocolate mint, or a pink/brown. They chose the chocolate mint. (Which is a favorite of mine! And, probably goes with a lot of what I wear anyway.) I really wanted to use denim on the inside. So, I found an old jean skirt and got the scissors.
Before actually cutting the fabric, I kept in mind that keeping the back pockets intact would be beneficial. They would make great pockets inside my purse. I probably could have figured out how to keep the front pockets too, but I only had nap time to work on this project. So, I'll save that for another day. I wanted to make my purse similar to the pleated totes I make but on a smaller scale. I cut 2 pieces from the denim, and 2 from my fabric pieces, so it would have a nice curvy shaped bottom.
Next I added the pleats! I only pleated the fabric for the outer part of my bag.
This means that I'm going to have to re-cut my denim to fit. Oops! Now I know better, and will wait to cut my denim until AFTER I have pleated the outer bag. No big deal really.
Now that I have 4 pieces, all cut the same size, I can sew it all together. Of course, I still needed to make the straps. Since this purse was for me, I didn't do my usual straps. I kind of just folded and sewed them together. So, they aren't super pretty finished but I like them all the same. =]
I think it turned out pretty great! I like how I have the back pockets inside my bag. They hold my camera and cell phone nicely. It can also be carried reversible, which is always a nice option. One purse, 2 looks!
I liked how my purse came out so much, that I decided I wanted to see what else I could make with some old denim I had lying around. I thought some notepad holders would be cute!
What do you think? I made these for 3 of my sweet nieces. I plan to make more though because I like them so much!
Do you have any favorite ways to re-use old denim?