Upcycled Denim Purse

My mom is not a big purse lady, she prefers small, light weight purses.  I have made a handbag for her before, but the fabric is too casual for her to carry to a more serious gathering.

So I decided to make her a fancier but not too fancy purse.

Let's see how I made it.

Cut a dark pair of jeans like this

For this purse, I did not want to keep the button and zipper, so I cut it off like this.  You can keep it if you wish.

Unstitch the waist band

Got a shiny belt buckle for closure.  And purse handles.  I also cut a few pieces of denim for the back and bottom.  Do some measurements to determine what you need.

Make the belt to be fed sewn onto the purse to secure the belt buckle 

Put an eyelet in the middle

Sew the front denim pieces together.  (the two parts from front of jeans after cutting out the zipper)

Sew it half way down, stopping right before the eyelet, onto the denim front.  Feed it through the belt buckle, then finish sewing it onto the denim front.  

Then sew the rest of the denim pieces together to form a large piece of fabric.  

Later, you will fold this in half and sew the sides shut with boxed corners.  Now prepare some sturdy fabric, you can either use fusible interfacing, or really tough fabric, I chose a piece of canvas, and some batting.  

Layer all the fabrics together and sew them at the sides, with right sides together

Make boxed corners

Then prepare your lining (I forgot to take pictures, but I sewed the two back pockets on the lining)

Baste the top of purse to keep all layers in place

Here is the tricky part, I wanted to keep all the belt loops, so I sewed the loops onto the waist band first.  Then sewed the four straps that will be holding the purse handles onto the waist band, but only on one side first.

Now it's time to make the belt that will be used to close to purse through the belt buckle

Pin the all the fabric, along with the belt inside the waist band.

Feed the straps (the purse handle straps) through the purse handles then pin them in place

Time to use denim needle to sew this sucker!  (I learned it the hard way.....)

Here is an inside shot with the two back pockets