My New Upcycled Denim Shopping Bag

erikah(83)

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It's been a few weeks, since I decided to make a bag for myself and looking at the date of the photos, it's been exactly two. Two weeks of pushing the fabric left and right, till last night, when I had enough and got to work.

It's been ages since I last created something using my sewing machine and I miss it. It's a different kind of work and it relaxes my mind after staring at the screen for hours and doing analysis all day. Not my eyes, unfortunately, which is not a good thing, but a healthy balance can solve the problem.

The truth is, I have a lot of leftover denim fabrics, which at some point I thought it'd be better to sell in one pack, as many people do that, but I'd be better selling the bags as I can get more for it, not to mention it's fun to create all kinds of designs.

Vinted is a huge help in this regard, it's not the same as etsy obviously, where I could get way more, but the shipping system makes the difference. The bags I see on Vinted each day is crazy, it motivates me to get back to creating and let's see my luck at selling them. People are listing all kinds of designs, some at reasonable prices, others are kind of at a delusional level, but at the end of the day, you need to reach the right audience and find the right buyer willing to pay as much as you want. Time will tell. Till then, I'd like to show you my new shopping bag.

The whole thing started with this pair of Wrangler, which is top quality no matter how you look at it. It was made before these stretchy, low quality jeans flooded the market, or they are just keeping their standard unaffected. At some point in its life, it has been modified as you can see at the waist, but that was not a problem for me.

There are a lot of designs available for free on YouTube, so I had a look, to have an idea, but then I chose to do my own, as I wanted a bigger bag, to be able to fit all my shopping in it.

It was a bit heartbreaking to leave these seams out as I love them, but I'm saving them for my upcoming projects, no worries.

This is a 44cm x 74cm piece, with interface, the main piece of the bag. It's quite big and exactly as I wanted.

The original bag had 9cm x 50cm straps, which I thought to modify to be longer, but didn't and it turned out to be the right decision, after all, this is a handbag, not a shoulder bag.

My next dilemma was whether to use interface for the straps, and this was a big one. The tutorial didn't use any, but knowing how much weight I'll be carrying in it and that no matter how sturdy the denim is, it's going to be put to the test. At the end I didn't use any and so far no regrets.

This fabric has been sitting in my drawer for a good few years. I bought it from the charity shop as I loved the colors and have been saving it for ... I don't know what, so it was time to use it. You can see the time and the use on it, but who cares, it's for a shopping bag, not for Milano Fashion Week.

No bag without pockets, so I made one, for small items, or the fill, who knows when I'm going to need it, or for what.

I wanted a colorful lining and there it is. You can call it everything, but not boring.

I did a really lousy job with the pocket, don't look at the stitches here 😆 but the pocket looks ok.

Straps applied.

This is where things got interesting. I've never done a bag with sides, so I had to work it out how much I need, as it wasn't the size in the tutorial, but it's not rocket science, it's just math.

Here it is, the bag turned inside out, without the lining of course.

And here it is, the bag, finished.

Today I took it out for a spin, packed it with the items I bought and could not be happier. It's spacious, resists to carry 5 - 6 kg, maybe more, so I'm happy.