Jean Crafts – Turn Old Denim Blue Jeans into a Purse

This is a really simple craft that allows you to recycle your old blue jeans and give them new use.  All you need is an old pair of jeans that you don’t mind cutting up, some velcro, sewing needles, thread, hot glue gun and sticks, scissors and a few embellishments.

Once you have all your supplies, you need to cut the legs off of the jeans.  You can cut them lower down on the leg than the crotch for a deeper purse or you can cut the legs in a U shape to make your jean purse hobo style.

After you get the legs cut off turn the pants inside out, pin the bottom together and sew it closed.  Don’t forget to reinforce your seam by using a zig-zag edging stitch afterwards.

Below is what your jean purse should look like depending on the way you cut the legs off.  If you don’t have a sewing machine you can hand sew the bottom or hot glue it.  You could probably even use no-sew liquid stitch but it would take a lot longer because you’d have to wait for it to dry.

Next you need to sew the crotch shut.   The easiest way to do this is to sew along the already existing crotch seams.  Don’t forget to zip up the pants first.  I don’t bother to sew around the button because I sew all the way to the waistline and that’s good enough.  The idea is to encase the zipper by sewing the flap closed as well.  In the following image I’m pointing out the two places to sew.

Now pin velcro to the waistband.  I pinned mine right underneath the edge of the front of the waistband and then underneath the waistband itself on the back edge of the pants.  When I laid out my pants in the beginning I let the waistband fall where it normally falls without pulling or manipulating the denim.  These pants are low on the wait so the front waistband falls lower than the back but on some jeans the waistband is at the same height all the way around.  It’s pretty easy to eyeball where the velcro should go and once you get it in place either sew it down or hot glue it down.  I sewed all the way up to the button and then hot glued the velcro over where the button is and then continued sewing the rest of the way.

All that’s left to do now is to put a strap on it and decorate it a bit.  To make a strap for your purse cut the legs of the jeans into strips and braid 3 of them together.  Sew the bottom of  the braid together and then sew each end to the waistband of your jean purse.  You can make your braid as thick or thin as you like.  Try mixing it up by using a belt for a strap or a bandanna or thick ribbon etc.

What’s really cool is that the pockets still function as pockets.

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