Recycled Blue Jeans Bag Tutorial

Remember when I said that I had been sewing like crazy during nap time this week? This is one of this things I've been working on...

Materials:
One pair blue jeans (or other pants)
Thread
Sewing machine
Jeans needle
Acrylic ruler
Tape measure
Scissors
Rotary Cutter and mat
Marker

Step One
Before you begin put a new jeans needle in your machine. Trust me on this one – it will make your life a lot easier later on when you try to sew through multiple layers of denim.

Next, darn any areas that look suspicious. You wouldn’t want the bag ripping apart the first time you used it, would you? I used the darning foot on my Bernina, lowered the feed dogs, and darned away.

Step Two
Sew the front pockets closed to prevent gaping. I used the longest and widest zigzag possible and just followed the curve of the pocket. You may prefer to use invisible thread or orange thread and go over the stitching that is already there. I did not sew closed the small change pocket.

Step Three
Next sew the fly closed. Zip the zipper, button or snap the pants, and turn them inside out. Use an edge stitch foot or a zipper foot to sew the flap behind the zipper to the front of the pants. I did not sew across the waistband; instead I started just below the waistband and sewed to the bottom of the fly. The button will still open and close as will the zipper, but the fabric is attached. Again, this was to prevent gaping and to insure my bag wouldn’t open unexpectedly.

Step Four
Lay the pants on a table and line up top of the jeans. Using the side seams for reference, line up the center front and back of the waistband. Line up the top edges of the waistband and pin.

Step Five
Lay the top section of the jeans out so they lay flat – don’t worry about the legs at this point. There will be some extra fabric right at the crotch, so that area will not lay flat. Just do the best you can. Measure down from the waistband to the center of the crotch. This measurement will depend on the size of jeans you started with. I started with size 38 x 30, so for me this measurement was right around 12 inches.

Step Six
In several places, measure down from the waste band that many inches and make a mark. Use your ruler to join these marks and draw a line across each leg of the jeans. I found it helpful to lay out and mark one leg at a time since I could not get both legs to lay flat simultaneously.

Step Seven
Using the line you just drew as a cutting line, cut off the legs of the jeans. Just go ahead and cut through both layers. Set these leg pieces aside and save them. You’ll need them later; one leg will become the bottom of the bag while the other will become the handles.

Step Eight
Neaten up the cut line by cutting off a little more fabric as needed. The back side of my jeans really needed a bit of cleaning up. You want this line to be fairly even, though mine ended up having a slight curve. (This will be a seam later on.)

Step Nine
Use a tape measure to measure across the cut end of the jeans. Try to stretch the fabric a bit when you measure so you don’t have a bunch of extra fabric when you go on to the following steps. For me the jeans were 25 ¼ just laying on the table, but they were almost 27 when I stretched them a bit. Set this top piece aside and write down the measurement.

Step Ten
Cut the bottom of the bag: Pick up one of the legs you cut off earlier and lay it out on your cutting mat. Fold the leg so that straight seam is on the side of the mat nearest to you. (On my pants that was the outside seam – the one that was not flat felled.) Line this seam up with one of the lines on your mat. Get out the measurement from step nine. Add one half inch to that number (this is your seam allowance.) Use your ruler and rotary cutter to cut off the crotch side and the foot side of the leg making the leg piece as long as your width plus one half inch. So for me, my measurement was 27 so I cut my leg piece 27 ½ inches long.

Keeping your leg piece nice and straight on your mat, cut off the inside seam – the thick flat felled one. Use your ruler and rotary cutter to cut off whatever fabric you need to so you end up with a nice rectangle. I cut of as little as I could so my rectangle was as tall as possible. (Sorry – I forgot to take a photo of this – so I tried to make a sketch to make this clearer.)

Due to the size of my mat, I had to fold the leg pieces in half to cut them. You may not have to.

Step Eleven
Sew the bottom of the bag: Fold the leg piece you just cut so the right sides are together. The one long side is already sewn. Using a one quarter inch seam allowance, sew up the two short sides. Now, three of the four sides are sewn - leave the last long side un-sewn. (Hopefully the diagram will make this clear.) This is where you will attach this piece to the top part of the jeans.

Step Twelve
Press the two side seams open. (The long seam will be serged so you won’t be able to press that one open.)

Next, make sure this piece (the bottom of the bag) is inside out. Fold it so that it lays flat, with the side seams laying on top of the long seam as shown in the photo. You’ll know you did it right if you have a triangle on each end with a seam running up the middle. (I hadn’t ironed my seams open yet when I took the picture.)

Step Thirteen
Give the bag a square bottom: Use your ruler and a marker to draw a line across the end of the triangle. I marked a line three inches up from the triangle point. Do this on both ends.

Step Fourteen
Sew across this line on both ends of the bag bottom. Make sure to anchor your ends securely!

This is what you should see on the inside of the piece after you sew:

Step Fifteen
Top stitch the sides of the triangle to give the bottom of the bag some strength. You could cut off the corner pieces, but I thought the bag would be stronger if I left the pieces intact.

(Inside of bag)

(Outside of bag)

Step Sixteen
Using the side seams to help you, find the center each and mark with a pin.

Step Seventeen
Sew the bottom and the top of the bag together: Putting right sides together, pin the top section of the bag to the bottom section of the bag. Match the pins to the center front and center back seams of the top piece. Also match the side seams. Stitch the top part and bottom part of the bag together using a one quarter inch seam allowance.

* If you look at my finished bag, you’ll notice a small pleat at the center front of the bag where the top and bottom are sewn together. That is there because I ended up with too much fabric as I was stitching the bag together; my bottom part was a bit too big, which is OK. Adding the pleat incorporated that extra fabric. I was worried that I would have too little fabric, so I really stretched back in step nine when I measured – that’s why I had too much. I figured it would be easier if I had a little too much fabric on the bottom piece than too little.

Step Eighteen
Press the seam toward the bottom of the bag then turn the bag right side in. Top stitch this seam down to add strength to the seam. Yeah! The body of your bag is now finished!

Step Ninteen
Make the handles: Get the last remaining leg piece. Use your scissors to cut off the seams. Take your time and cut close to the seams so you waste as little fabric as possible. You will end up with two pieces once the seams have been removed.

Step Twenty

In this step you want to trim the leg pieces so they are each a long rectangle. Working with one piece at a time, lay the piece on your cutting mat. (I folded it in half so it would fit on my mat.) Line up the fold and straightest side with the lines on your ruler and trim the long side.

Open up the leg. Is it srtaight, or is there a slight V shape like in the diagram below? If you got the V, you'll need to trim off a little more fabric at one end but not the other. (In the diagram below you would need to trim off at the ends but not at the fold.) I had to do this a couple of times before I had a truly straight side. Once you have a straight side square up the other three sides. Then do the same thing to the other piece and make their measuerments the same; you want them to be identical. Mine ended up being 8 inches by 25 inches.

Step Twenty One
Fold each piece in half length wise – so you have a long skinny piece. Press.

Open the fold. Then fold each side into the center. Press these folds.

Then, fold in half on that first fold and press agian. Open. This is what you should see:

Step Twenty Two
On each handle piece, fold each end in about ½ inch and press. My finished handles ended up to be 2 inches wide and 24 inches long.

Step Twenty Three
Top stitch all the way around each handle piece. I used orange thread.

Step Twenty Four
Position the handle. Don’t worry about the belt loops, but do worry about metal rivets – make sure you will not need to sew over them. The center of each of my handles is five inches from the center front (and back)of the bag. The bottom of each handle is 2 ½ inches below the top of the waistband.

I made sure to position the thick ends of my straps below the waistband. My Bernina can sew through thick layers, but six+ layers of denim was just too much for her…

Step Twenty Five

Stitch the handles in place. Stitch around the edge of the handle and then stitch an X from corner to corner to reinforce the handle.

That’s it – you’re done and ready to go shoping. Or, go find a toddler and take him (or her) for a ride. My son is almost four and about 40 pounds and he thought his two year-old sister would fit inside with him! I think I’ll stick to groceries…

If you make one of these, whether out of jeans or some other pants, I would love to know about it! Please let me know and I'll add a link to your post, photos, or whatever. Also, if any of the steps are unclear to you, email me and I will try to improve them.

Friendly Garden Visitors

My garden has been a popular place lately with dragonflies. I've seen that little red guy for the past four or five days now. I know dragonflies eat other insects and I wonder what he's eating in my garden. (Whatever it is, he can eat as much as he wants!) This morning was the first time I've seen the big guy. Apparently my bike makes a better resting spot than the plants. Maybe because he's so big... big enough, that while I was watching him through my camera lens, I could see him breathe - at least that's what it looked like. (That back tail-end-part seemed like it inflated and deflated as if he was breathing hard.)

OK, the kids are napping so I am heading back to my sewing room. I've been sewing like crazy during nap time this week...

Current Favorites

Living on an island that is 80% state park means we have an abundance of small critters running around the neighborhood. Mr. Toady makes regular appearances in the garden as do the slugs. (They're disgustingly HUGE - even for me!) We've also seen foxes in the backyard as well as a coyote early one morning this past winter.

S finds them all incredibly interesting, so it is no surprise that Jerry Pallotta's books are his current favorites. (Before you decide he is a complete geek at three and a half, he also asks for Dora's Fairy Tale Adventure at least three times a day...) You'll either love Jerry Pallotta's books or you'll hate them. We love them. S is not-so-much interested in the alphabet part as he is into the factual information about each creature. There is just enough on each page to interest him but not so much as to be overwhelming.

We actually own quite a few of his books - eleven to be exact. I thought I owned most of them, but he's been busy. Since I bought these (years ago to use in school, before I had children) he's come out with a ton more. Now if I could just get S to leave the slugs alone.... Have you ever tried to wash slug slime off?

$6,000,000 Granny?

OK, so maybe she isn't worth six million, but she's working on it and she does set off metal detectors...

On Friday morning Grandma will be getting new hip number three. Three you ask, how is that possible? Well, she got one replaced about 20 years ago and now that pesky hip has worn out and the ball will not stay in the socket. Something which is quite uncomfortable I am told. (Grandma I'll just take your word for it.) For a couple of months she was able to wiggle it back into place when it came out, but that isn't working any more. So, Grandma is currently in the hospital awaiting surgery. Keep your fingers crossed for her - at 87 a big surgery like this is a fairly big deal. Luckily she is in pretty good health and nothing else is really wrong with her. So there won't be much sewing for me in the next few days. Instead I'll be down at the hospital with Grandma.

Not grandma's hips... that would be a HIPAA violation.
Photo from: http://www.lopatka.net/Hip/

Indoor Flying Fun

We are so lucky - we have not one but two "butterfly houses" within walking distance of our house! (If you've never been, they are essentially greenhouses with live butterflies flying around inside.) With toddlers and lots of time for outings during the summer, we go to one of them about once a week. The owners of both places allow locals to enter at no cost. (How cool is that?) I suppose it is good advertising... because we do recommend that all of our friends take their children there when they visit.

Both S and K enjoy the butterfly houses. (Yes, it's another homemade hat.) S, my little budding entomologist, loves that he can get up close and personal with the butterflies. But he knows the cardinal rule, "We can't touch the butterflies because we will hurt them!" Though like all toddlers he pushes the rules and I have to keep an eye on him. If it was up to him he'd bring his net and little bug house with him every time we went and we'd leave with some new "pets." K, on the other hand, is not so sure about those flying things - she is a bit fearful. She's usually OK, unless one of them lands on her. Is one does, she lets out a little shriek and whimpers, "I scared." (We're working on that.) She seems to enjoy walking through the gardens, looking at the turtles and goldfish in the pond, and trying to find the little birds that fly around inside the greenhouse.

Recent Craftiness

I kept busy this past weekend... I can't seem to find hats with large enough brims for S, so I have started making them. (He inherited my coloring so he never goes out doors without SPF 50 slathered all over him and a hat - K as well, though she got her father's coloring.) So this weekend I made the bee hat for S, the lady bug hat for K, and the three hooded towels (tutorial here) for my nephews. The first one I made without the serger (what was I thinking?), but the second two went much faster with it. Now that I have the darn serger, I just have to remember to use it...

An Island Fourth

Such fun... The kids and I headed downtown yesterday to celebrate the Fourth. We took Papa a picnic lunch and then all headed to Windermere Point for the holiday festivities. We watched the International Stone Skipping Contest (the winner had more than 20 skips!) and the sack races, enjoyed the face painting, and explored the fire trucks before nap time beckoned...

The later-than-usual nap was the only reason S and K made it through the fireworks. (We are above the 45th parallel, so this time of year it is still dusk after 10:00 pm. Our fireworks didn't begin until after 10:30.) This year marks the first time I made a serious attempt to photograph them. I must admit, I am pleased at the result. (For those who are interested: ISO 200, f/11, & approximately a 10 second exposure.)

Liz of Green Gables?

My house may not have gables, but I can imagine it does...

Megan Follows as Anne of Green Gables

BoufMom9 began a Biblical Meme a few weeks ago, she invited Mum-me to play along, who invited me to play along. So here goes:

As my friends know, I am not really a biblical person. So I’ll have to go with literature on this one…

The classic literary character I am most like is Anne of Green Gables. (She is one of my all time favorite characters!) Anne is head strong, hard working, imaginative, and one of those girls others perceive as just a wee bit different. She adapts quickly, is full of joy, she lives on an island, and she hates her hair and her freckles. Anne always seems to get herself into trouble (though unintentionally) but things always seem to work out in the end. Then, there was the time Anne broke a slate on top of a boy’s head after he teased her; I used a social studies book instead...

Here are the rules of the game:

1. Choose a person in the Bible or classic literature who most represents who you are.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration, scripture or story if you like.

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.

4 .Tag five more blogs with links.

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

I'm tagging Katie, Maggie, and Susan. I know that isn't five, but it is the best I can do today...

Image from http://greengables.tripod.com/

Practically Perfect in Every Way

What a fantastic weekend...

To start with, everyone who stayed with us shopped for us, which was great since the closest decent shopping is a 20 minute boat ride and a two hour drive away. L & D brought a hose reel from Meijer, K & D brought diapers, spices, and 50 pounds of dog food from Wal-Mart. M & S brought insulbright, more spices, fabric, and shoe bags from Ohio. C brought the mother load - toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, kleenex, bleach, shampoo, dryer sheets and diapers from Costco. All of which made my life much much easier. (Thanks guys!)

The eighteen of us had an absolute blast. Friday night's boat ride may have started out with a downpour but it ended with a rainbow and a lovely sunset.

Saturday's visit to the fort was a hoot. (It was the first time the kids had been there since infancy.) S loved the "Kid's Quarters," specifically the dress-up section. K, on the other hand, loved the Concert of Military Music, which S didn't get to hear because he wanted to try on every outfit.

Then, on the way home for nap time, Papa caught a garter snake. K belly laughed every time that little guy stuck out his tongue. He he he - I'm laughing again just thinking about it. (Don't worry, we let it go after we finished investigating.)

The reunion dinner at the fort on Saturday night was wonderful. We got to reminisce with lots of old friends, we got another spectacular sunset, and...

surprise fireworks.

Not much beats surprise fireworks!

The only bad part of the weekend was Sunday afternoon when everyone had to pack up and head for home. And believe it or not, the only things left behind were two gigantic toothbrushes...

Smiling

Miss Chris over at Pink Picket Fence is posting things that make her smile this week. Right now my gardens are making me smile...

this morning's dew

coral bells

a molting fish fly

a wee daisy

Plus I have 13 people coming to stay with me this weekend for the fort reunion. That will make a total of 18 of us, nine adults and nine children, in my four bedroom house. We may be sleeping like cord wood, but we are going to have so much fun! I hope you have a great weekend too.

Life, the Universe and Everything

1. And the winners are...

Jacquie, Shannon, and Marcia. Email me your addresses so I can get those tulips heading your way. (I know I needed a photo of a tulip, but I am in Indiana spending the week with my in-laws, and I only had pictures of irises on my camera - so it will have to do.)

2. The kids and I are having a BLAST this week with Grandma and Grampie down in Southern Indiana. Partially because it is warm here! When we life the island it was 48 degrees and we could see our breath. Down here it is in the 80s and sunny. We left Northern Michigan at 5:30 am, and got to see a beautiful sunrise.

The next day we went to the Indianapolis Zoo with my MIL, SIL and her three boys. Fun fun fun! S and K favorite part was watching the seals swim.
The next day we were off to Holiday World... more about that another time.

Tulips For Everyone

OK, maybe not for everyone, but for a few... A few posts ago I mentioned how the hotels on the island pull their tulip bulbs each summer, well this year I hit the jackpot! I happened to be riding by on my bike just as one of the gardeners was pulling them out. I filled my basket as well as my cart.
I managed to get so many that I'd like to share. Just leave a comment (and make sure I can email you) and on June 20th I'll draw three names - each of whom will get some flowery goodness. I'd love to ship them to anyone, but I doubt customs will let me ship outside the US... I know a few of the bulbs are purple, but other than that your guess is as good as mine. (Most of the petals blew off in a storm, but I know that hotel had red, orange, white, yellow, purple and salmon.) In my experience most of them come up in the spring, but obviously I can't guarantee it. Even if they all don't come up, they're still worth the price. :)

They Were Everywhere!

Being the geeky science person that I am, I really enjoy a good bug. I like watching them, taking pictures of them, catching them, and showing them to to S and K. But not when they are literally everywhere!

There were so many of them flying around while I was trying to get a picture, I had to hold the neck of my jammies tight so they couldn't fly in (after getting one up my sleeve - yuck!) My dad said they were June Bugs and that they are quite common. I've lived in Michigan my entire life and I can't ever remember seeing a swarm of them!

There were trout everywhere too... We stopped at the fish hatchery on the way home from my parent's house on Sunday to feed the fish. As always, the kids loved it... well most of it. About every three minutes K said, "I go swimmin." She just didn't understand why she just couldn't jump right in with the fish.

We made it back to the island just in time to enjoy the rain... Not that I am complaining mind you - my gardens love the rain!

Spring Cleaning

Over the past two days I have made good progress on my list! Before you look at the "before and after" photos I feel I need some kind of disclaimer or something. We really the giant pigs that the before pictures imply... really, we aren't! The end of the school year gets amazingly crazy around here! Between recovering from the senior trip, being sick, report cards, getting the car fixed, a wedding shower, two productions of the school play (The Magical Land of Oz - which was amazing by the way,) ordering all my school supplies for next year, packing up everything in my classroom, and trying to get my gardens in order, the inside of the house has basically been ignored for the past three weeks. (For some reason Blogger isn't letting me type an enter...So imagine I am starting a new paragraph.) I started by tackling my bedroom. Between my unpacked suitcase, laundry and piles of stuff everywhere - it seemed like the best place to begin...

After

Then it was on to my son's room. He's been itching to have his "baby bed" taken down for some time now. I usually have the kids help when their rooms need to be cleaned, but today I just dove right in and did it myself...

After

The living room was also atrocious! The five of us (we have a friend, M, living with us this summer) spend a lot of time here and it tends to get trashed daily. As I sit in my nice clean room, I can't believe how bad it was! Dear God...

After

In addition to cleaning those rooms I also cleaned the entry way, organized the hall closet, cleaned my bathroom, organized my bedroom closet and the bathroom closet, washed and put away six loads of laundry, got one bag ready for the thrift shop, got another bag ready for the dry cleaners, went through all of S' clothing and packed away the too-small items to hand-down and unpacked all of his handed-down summer things.

I'm not sure how much I'll get done over the next few days as I am headed to Traverse City on Friday (which means I have to leave the island tomorrow) to get my Bernina serviced and to hopefully buy a serger. Then we are off to the Charlevoix Renaissance Festival (we've never been before) on Saturday. Have a great weekend!

Summer?

I took this picture on June first. June first! Even for us this far North, the tulips are usually a lot farther along by the beginning of June. In fact, the hotel where I took this picture usually has the tulips pulled out of the ground before school is out. Not this year... It is wonderful that the hotels in my town rip out their tulips each year. Once they start to look a little ragged the grounds keeping staff pulls them out of the ground - bulb and all - and throws them on the compost pile. Every tulip I have in my garden came from that lovely little pile. Since they pull out the entire flower I can usually tell what color I am getting too. Don't you just love hand-me-downs... Summer for me starts today! For the next two weeks my children are going to the sitter's house so I can get projects done. I hope by blogging about them I am more likely to get everything finished! My plans are:

• clean the entire house, and I mean the entire house
• catch up on the mountain of laundry
• sort through the kid's off season and next-size-up clothes
• paint the kid's bathroom
• paint K's room
• organize my sewing room

Wish me luck and productivity. I'll try to keep everyone posted on my progress. If I get really brave I might even post some before and after photos. (We'll have to see about that one though.)