I Made This! Bag From Pants

You did indeed hear me correctly - I made myself a bag out of a pair of Shawn's old pants. I got the idea from this bag that I pinned months ago. This is actually my second attempt; my first one yielded not-so-delightful results using some cargo shorts. At least the first bag was a good practice round.

I used fabric from a pair of khaki pants for the outside and fabric from a green polo shirt for the inside. (I wouldn't recommend using polo material though... it gave me a really hard time with the sewing machine; the fabric stretches and bunches and kept getting caught in the machine.) The khakis were the perfect material for the outside though - sturdy and thick.




Since I didn't actually like the look of the cargo pocket on the outside, I decided to use one of the pants' back pockets and put it under the flap instead of using it as the flap. I'm really happy with the result - a hidden but useful pocket!




There wasn't enough fabric for me to do one long strap, and since I wanted a bag I could wear messenger-style I made two separate ones instead. Now I can tie the straps to whatever length I want! It adds an element of cuteness, too, since bows are always cute :)




I didn't take a lot of in-progress pictures, since I wasn't sure how well it was going to turn out. This is the only 'before' picture I snapped - all the fabric pieces after cutting them to size but before sewing them together. I sewed the lining (green fabric) pieces together, then sewed the exterior (khaki fabric) pieces together. I didn't actually sew the straps until afterwards, so the pieces for those aren't pictured. For those, I just cut up one leg of the pants and cut two wide strips that I sewed up into tubes with one end closed off, then turned them right side out.




Here's a shot of my wonderful handiwork. Seriously, not to brag or anything, but I'm really proud of this one. I actually finished a sewing project that I set out to do! Alright, the sewing machine did most of the work, but that doesn't mean it's any less of a job well done. I did hit some snafus (mostly with the pesky liner) but the whole project turned out much better than I expected. It also took way longer than I expected... I ended up spending most of my Wednesday off putting this bag together. Next time though, it should be a breeze!




One last photo of the finished product, just to end this post on good note. I will definitely be making more bags this year (...if I say it, I'm more likely to do it! :P) and I'd love to play around with different fabrics, and maybe put a pocket or two on the inside of the next one. Stay tuned!