old jeans upcycle (part 1)

Hello my friends! 

I've been meaning to put this up for awhile, but didn't get around to doing it just yet. This project came about in a rather funny way, actually, so I'll tell you the whole story.

I was about to dump a whole bag of stuff at the local op shop when I noticed a pair of still almost-perfect jeans sitting on top. The jeans were silently screaming, "save me pleeeeeeease". Then I remembered a tutorial I had found much earlier in a craft mag about how to turn jeans into cute overalls! So I heeded the call of the jeans (very happily!), rescued them, and brought them back home. What a great moment of inspiration!

Here's a "before" picture:

They're pretty basic, just a pair of dark blue denim mens' jeans from Rodd and Gunn.

The overalls I mentioned actually have a skirt bottom instead of pants, modelled on the one from the Great British Sewing Bee's book Sustainable Style. However, due to a trifling discrepancy in the instructions and my jeans (which I conveniently failed to notice, oops), the fit of the jeans would be haywire because my size is not a mens size 12! This pattern calls for a slim fit design and so Plan A failed. But never fear, because a great key to upcycling is to improvise, improvise, and improvise some more! I tried doing this and trust me, it's amazing. Whenever a project suddenly veers off course I know what to do now.

Since I'd already unpicked and cut off the pants portion of the jeans I had to make do with the top part, which ended up falling just on the crotch line. It kinda looked like the shape of a denim skirt (sorry I forgot to take a picture!). 

Then I had Lightbulb Flash No. 2; turn it into a bag! First, I neatened up the bottom edge and made it super-straight. Then I cut both bottom corners off at right angles. Any sewist who has worked with boxed corners on a pattern would know what I mean. It looked something like this:

(source: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lazygirldesigns.com%2Ftutorial-box-the-bottom-corners-of-a-bag%2F&psig=AOvVaw29cOE9wXRxQtCjSZW6WtDn&ust=1614163545496000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCND7xf3p_-4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD) 

The next step was to stitch up the bag. The sides were already done for me, so I sewed up the bottom and boxed the corners. I finished all the edges with a neat zigzag to prevent any unravelling. I was a little lazy and didn't add any lining or closures, so the bag ended up being a super simple, basic design with a lovely base and the waist button/zipper left on as a feature! 

Finally I found some leftover cotton belting I had from an earlier project (check out the Itsy-Bitsy Bag in Little Spools' site!) and used this as the straps! The cream colour contrasted well with the dark denim.

And here's the "after" shot! Not the overalls I intended, but something equally cool! 

Isn't it cute? My sister is using it as her dance bag to chuck her shoes and hair kit in. I'll definitely hunt up more pairs of jeans and upcycle them the same way! 

P.S. this is only part one: I haven't figured out what the pant leg sections should be used for yet! But that's coming soon! 

I hope you enjoyed reading this! 

~ Ash