Upcycled Denim Tote Bag

I'm back with another bag, this time a tote bag without a zipper. Zipper bags are cool, actually I prefer a zipper bag but monotony is not something I enjoy, so I had to make something different this time.

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Because it's Monday, this is my entry to #needleworkmonday challenge, founded by @crosheille and hosted by @muscara, @shanibeer and @marblely.

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Fabrics Used

Again, I'm working with jeans as it's the best so far for me. I love a good quality jeans. This was good quality but a little bit strange. I'm sorry for forgetting to take a photo of the jeans at the beginning.

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It had a wide, ugly, elastic, belt like part that needed to go. Otherwise the quality was excellent.

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For lining I used an s'Oliver shirt, a dark brown, unfortunately the light was not suitable and you can't see the true color but there will be other photos later in this post, so hang on.

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The Magic

The bottom part of each one is saved as I have a project for that, just need to collect as many as I can.

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This was trapeze style, which I truly hate when it comes to my pants but this is a different matter. If I'm not taking apart the fabric, I can lose a good part of it because of the trapeze style but there's a solution for everything. I used one of the pieces upside down to complement the missing part and thus I was able to save some fabric.

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And here it is. The line is not straight but who said it has to be straight.

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When I detached the pocket, I was left with a whole that basically ruined my chance to use the upper part of the jeans. Therefore I decided to use it for the carry straps.

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After putting together the front, back and carry straps, I could hardly resist not to use the pocket, so here it is, pocket applied. It was too nice not to use it.

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The lining was pretty easy, even though I had to use a few tricks to get the desired piece.

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Like this one. This is why the lines don't match but who cares, it makes it more interesting.

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This is the piece for my famous 3 compartment pocket.

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This is the perfect size even for a phone.

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I wanted to keep the s'Oliver logo of the shirt and basically made my job more harder. At least the pocket turned out ok.

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I'm learning 😁

What came next was a nightmare (kind of). I wanted a tote bag but with some kind of lock as in my country if something is not locked, it disappears in a split second. There are magnets for bags but the lockdown makes it impossible to get any right now. There's a website I intend to order from but that's going to be only next week.

After a few days of thinking and weighing options, I came up with the idea of using a button. I've got a few Esprit buttons that match the fabric perfectly. So I just had to figure it out how to use it.

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Finally got the solution and here's the process. I used this piece of fabric to make an ear for the button.

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Had to use interfacing to make it resistant.

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This is how it looked after putting together the bag and the lining.

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And here it is.

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I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Could sell it but may as well end up keeping it as I love it. It's big enough for everything. There's plenty of time to decide.

Check out my other sewing posts:

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