I 'stashed' (hid) this pair of jeans from my young students because it just wouldn't be fair for one girl to get this VERY elegant pocket with which to make one of my favorite Sunroom Sewing Studio Class Projects: the Jeans Pocket Purse. These jeans are stitched in a light grey and studded with lots of large clear stones! Here's a picture of my final project up close.
And here's a picture of the final project that shows the other side of the bag, AND the Tie which created the strap.
BUTTONHOLE ELASTIC 'GROW' FACTOR
Totally not having anything to do with my bag creation, I'm adding here about a feature found on these jeans. If you have little growing kids, this technique is amazing, and sometimes even found in Ready-to-Wear. I remember doing this in pants for my little boy (now 43).
On both sides of the center front, I found a 6" strip of Buttonhole Elastic and a clear button.
Look closely at the left side of the waistband...Do you see those 2 tacks of thread? Those tacks (which go through to the front of the waistband as well by the way) hold one end of the elastic firmly inside the waistband.
Right by my finger behind the black buttonhole elastic, is a ripped buttonhole size opening in the innermost layer of the waistband through which the other end of the buttonhole elastic comes. The clear button is stitched to the waistband right by that slashed hole for fastening to the 'buttonholes' in the center of the elastic. All along this elastic are holes. The more one pulls the elastic and fastens it, the tighter the waistband is pulled. I used to sell this Buttonhole Elastic quite briskly, but can not get it any longer from my supplier. Guess what? Of course - the supplier of 'all' - AMAZON, has it. https://www.amazon.com/CREATPRET-Inch-Buttonhole-Stretch-Elastic/dp/B07MTSVXXR/ref=sr_1_4_sspa?keywords=buttonhole+elastic&qid=1655581886&sr=8-4-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFDVkpIWE84QlhDWjcmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA5NzQ2NjUyTjlIOUFUWDBRU0YmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDYwNTMxOTFXS0FXSTZHWVNZUDkmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl
This pair of jeans had been 'utilized' likely for straps on a student's Jeans Pocket Purse, so all I had left was about the finished size that you see. The men's tie was laying around from my last up-cycle project (Calvin Klein T + Tie), not having been used on that project, and it seemed to go well with this project.....
At first I thought I would use the tie just as 'embellishment', feeding it through the belt loops, but without leg 'fabric' from which to make the strap, it hit me to use the tie as both decor AND the strap. I had already removed the 'guts' or interfacing from the inside of the tie, so I just folded it in half and stitched it together lengthwise along the turned-in edges. You can see from the remaining pictures, how I still did 'tie' the tie through belt loops on both sides to serve as the shoulder handle - a perfect 42" length, still leaving enough to 'hang' at each end.
Truly the only challenging parts of this project were
Stitching through the bulk of the jeans. I used a Denim Sharp Needle - size 100 and grey thread that just seemed to 'hide' very easily.
Adding the oval-shaped bottom of the bag and lining. I stitched 1/4" from the edge of both 'ends' of the bottom of the bag and clipped right up to the stitching about every 1/4" in order to 'maneuver' around the curved ends of the 'bottom' that I had cut. I did this on both the outer 'jeans' layer, and the interior cotton layer.
This last photo shows the pocket inside, which I made a double layer, even adding some fusible interfacing to the uppermost edge. I also stitched my 'A Londa Original' label to the front of the pocket before adding it to the lining before stitching the lining into the denim. Above the center front zipper, I attached the lining by hand, as there was NO WAY that I could have stitched through ALL of those layers!
I have added this Shoulder Bag to my A Londa Original pieces for sale at my website. Find it at this link: https://www.londas-sewing.com/product-page/jeans-tie-shoulder-bag
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