Tutorial: Make a messenger bag from an old pair of jeans

My new everyday bag is the small messenger bag made out of an old pair of jeans. It’s easy to wear and easy to reach into. I’ve got a tutorial over at my personal blog, Orange Bettie, showing how to make one. I was inspired by the hem of the jeans leg, thinking it needed to become the edging on a bag flap. You can embellish the flap as much or as little as you like. In this bag, I appliqued flower motifs from vintage fabrics. The front opening (under the flap) also has a hemmed edge. The bag is lined, with no raw edges on the inside, but I left the edges of the strap and the sides of the flap raw because a soft, feathery, weathered edge just feels like old denim to me.

Click below to get my tutorial:

Tutorial: Recycled Jeans Messenger Bag with a Jeans Hem Flap, by Orange Bettie

[photo from Orange Bettie]

Looking for more DIY sewing patterns to make your own bags, totes and clutches? Check these Sewing patterns out on Etsy.

Looking to chat about sewing? Check out our sewing group on Facebook with over 80K members.

Next Pattern:

I am just smitten with this felt gingerbread house bag. This would make such a sweet special Christmas accessory for a kid. It’s a free pattern at Benzie Design, designed by Gracie from Hello Gracie Makes. It’s packed with adorable gingerbread house details, like swirls and stripes and scallops adoring the doors and windows.

And while all those details might seem like this would be a complicated pattern, it’s actually not. The bag itself is made from felt, which makes finishes edges unnecessary. (All of those scalloped edges are just cut from felt, no edge finishing required.) The strap is super simple, made from rope with knotted ends. And all those details are made with some basic hand embroidery stitches. Sparkle felt makes it extra cute.

The striped scallop roof is actually the top flap of the bag. A magnetic snap makes it a secure closure. The rope straps are attached through felt loops at the side of the bag.

They rate this project as an intermediate level, and it should take about 6 hours to make start to finish. That’s doable for a Saturday project or a couple of evenings. Full color photos step you through the entire process.

The project includes a shopping list for all of your supplies. They’ve got a shop so you can order all of them from Benzie if you like and get exactly the supplies used in the project. I noticed it includes a pair of scallop shears, which makes cutting all the scalloped edges for the roof and around the door a breeze.

Finished dimensions of the little felt gingerbread bag are approximately 6 ½” wide x 7 ½” tall. That’s the perfect size to hold a small book, a small toy, or a notepad and some cute pens.

Go to Benzie Design to get the tutorial and free pattern for the felt gingerbread house bag.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply