Dont throw away those old jeans.....

Hey all! I thought I'd share with you a purse that I made in 07 for my friend Suzie. It was made out of a pair of little girls jeans. I found them on clearance at Wal-Mart but there is no reason why you couldn't use old jeans as well. I've done that and it works just as good. I just happened across these and loved them.

You can decorate them any way that you would like to...with rhinestones, buttons, beads ect. And I like to add a cute little belt as well but you could also use a bandana or if you really wanted to get fun with it you could stick a feather boa through the loops. The possibilities are endless.

I like to line my purses and add some pockets so things can stay a bit more organized and since pink of Suzie's "signature color" I of course had to do hers in pink. I bought my handles at Hobby Lobby and the belt came from the clearance isle of Wal-Mart as well.

Basically all that you do is cut the jeans legs off. Then turn inside out and sew a straight stitch all the way across the bottom. Next, make a box pleat on either "hip" this way it will sit for you better. Then make yourself a lining by measuring the inside of the jeans and allow for seams. After that decide what size pockets you want and cut and sew those in. Then sew all three sides of your lining up and make the same box pleat that you did earlier. Once you get this done then I always take and iron my top rough edge down so it will make a nice crisp hem at the top and I add a piece of really stiff cardboard in the bottom of the purse BEFORE I add the lining. Putting a bit of glue down first really helps too. Then make some small strips that will act as your handle supports. Go ahead and sew those on with you handles. Then sew your lining in. Sometimes you may have to do some of this by hand. It just all depends. One thing to keep in mind...make sure that you have denim needles in your machine cause your going to need them. I made the mistake (ok several mistakes) by not using the denim needles cause I thought that I could get away with it. That wasn't the case at all. Then I decorated it once I had the lining in.

It's all ready for it's first shopping trip now.....

If you've ever done any kind of sewing you can do this. It's really not that hard. I mean after all I did it and if I can then I'm sure that you can as well.

So there you have it....a solution to NOT throwing away your favorite pair of jeans....

Come on back soon ya'll!