I found a truly ancient pair of American Eagle jeans at the bottom of a drawer and decided to convert them into a shopping tote bag.
First, I deconstructed the jeans, removed the waistband, pockets, and cut the front and back apart. My preference was to reuse the various components of the jeans but in an all new configuration. This took a fair bit of time! The pieces are sewn together with double topstitching 17.5” x 14.5”.
I cut squares out of the bottom of the rectangles 2.5” x 2.5” so my tote would have a flat bottom about 5” wide. Then I sewed half of each waistband (about 13” each) to use for straps. Each was sewn 3” from the top center of the outer bag, a total of 6” apart. These pieces were interfaced with a muslin interfacing similar to Pellon SF101.
For the lining, I cut two pieces of quilting cotton the same size as the outer fabrics. I interfaced these pieces just like the outer fabrics. Next, I sewed a few pockets in the lining that I’d harvested from some old jeans I’d used for a project some time ago.
the lining
And here’s the result!
