Turning dead jeans into a bag that'll hold
Okay. Last lesson you pinned, measured, and sewed through some thick seams without breaking a needle or your patience. Today we build something out of all of it. A bag.
This is the lesson where the module pays off. You're not practicing anymore, you're making a thing you'll actually carry to Macey's.
What you're starting with
You want two or three dead pairs of jeans. Dead means the thighs are shot, or there's a hole you don't want to patch, or you just don't wear them anymore. It does not mean falling apart at every seam. You need enough good fabric left to cut clean panels, so look at the legs and the back yoke, that's usually where the strongest denim is left even on a pair that's done for.
Here's the thing about denim and bags. Denim already comes with structure built in, from the original seams and the topstitching, and if you plan your cuts around that instead of against it, the bag looks intentional instead of like a school project. Use a back pocket as the bag's front pocket. Use a waistband as a strap or a top edge that won't stretch out. You're not hiding that this used to be jeans. You're using what's already there.
Cutting
Measure twice. I mean it every time I say it and I mean it here more, because unlike a hem, if your bag panels are two different sizes you can't take up a few inches and hide it. It'll just be a lopsided bag and you'll know it every time you use it.
Decide on a size first. A simple tote is two rectangles for the front and back, a rectangle for the bottom if you want it to stand up, and two long strips for straps. I usually go about 14 inches by 16 inches for the main panels, but that's a personal preference, not a rule. Cut your panels from the flattest parts of the legs, away from thick inseams where you can avoid it, because four layers of top-stitched denim seam under your machine needle in the same spot you're also trying to sew a strap onto is asking for trouble.
Straps: use the waistband if you have enough length, split down the middle. If not, cut two strips about 4 inches wide and fold them in on themselves for strength before you topstitch down each side.
Sewing it together, right sides together
Pin. I don't care that it's slow, and I've said that before, but a bag is the worst possible project to skip pinning on because you're sewing through more layers than usual and things shift more than they do on a single seam. Pin your front and back panels right sides together, sew down both sides and across the bottom, leave the top open.
If you want the bag to have depth instead of being flat, square off the corners: at each bottom corner, pinch the fabric so the side seam lines up with the bottom seam, flatten it into a little triangle, and sew straight across an inch or two from the point. Cuts that corner off effectively and gives you a bag that sits instead of lying there like an envelope.
Here's my mildly unpopular opinion again, since it applies here too: you don't need to backstitch every seam on this like your life depends on it. For the main body seams, fine, backstitch, those take stress. But if you're attaching a small pocket or a decorative flap, a couple of forward stitches and a solid knot holds just fine. Save the heavy backstitching for the places that'll actually get pulled on, which brings us to straps.
Straps are a stress point, don't get lazy there
Straps get yanked, slung over shoulders, caught in car doors. This is where you backstitch, and where you go over the attachment point twice if you're at all unsure. Attach them to the inside of the bag before you finish the top edge, sandwich them in, and reinforce with an X-box stitch if your machine and your patience allow it. A strap that rips off three weeks in is the kind of failure that makes people give up on the whole project, and I don't want that for you.
Fold the top edge over once, pin it down, and topstitch around the whole opening to finish it and lock the straps in at the same time.
An aside about "good enough machines"
I fixed my mother-in-law's machine a while back, one everybody in the family had already written off as dead, forty years old, sitting under a sheet in a closet. Turned out it just needed oil and a new needle. Same thing I've told you in this course a dozen times: most machines people give up on aren't broken, they're neglected. I was quietly smug about that one for a solid week. If your machine's been chugging through denim like a champ this whole module, that's not luck, that's you cleaning it and changing needles when you were supposed to.
Before next time
Cut your panels and straps before next class so we're not spending class time on cutting, we'll go straight into assembly and any tricky spots you hit trying to sew through four layers of top-stitched denim at once.