These were L.'s pants that she had outgrown some time ago, while I was cleaning out some stuff today I decided to make a purse out of these. The bamboo handles I had around and were actually suppose to go to another project but in the process of trying to sew the handles out of the pant legs of these pants I ended up breaking a needle, and the lining was some fabric that I had lying around that I had gotten from Wal-Mart with their infamous $1.00/yd. fabric.
Which brings me to my next I ended up not having to go to Wal-Mart today to pick up some needles because after I got done posting my other post I remembered that my sewing maching had came with 3 other needles. So I (and the girls) were pretty thrilled we didn't have to go. It is pretty cold here, which is REALLY strange for this time of year. I think the high today was 50 some degrees but the wind was blowing like crazy which made it even colder.
Edited to add:
This isn't a step by step tutorial but I'll give you the "cliff notes" of it. It is actually really easy and you can do it with ANY pants. Of course toddler and children size pants make for a smaller purse versus an adult size pants.
~First turn you pants inside out and lay them flat so that the waist of the pants match up. Then decide how deep you want your bag to be and cut off right above the crotch area. Stitch it together and trim off any excess fabric. Turn bag right side out.
~Second (and this is how I do it) pick your lining fabric and (with right sides together of the lining fabric) lay the bag on top of it so that the bottom part of the bag is on the fold of the fabric. Trace around the bag leaving about a 1/4" to 1/2" seam allowance and leave about 1" to 2" on top so you can fold it down. Stitch together the lining fabric and place inside the purse folding down the top of the fabric to be flush with the top of the bag.
~Third, you can make handles one of two ways. Either make handles of cloth or (as I did in mine) you can add store bought handles. To make the flap for mine I cut out 4 pieces of fabric that measured about 5" wide (I almost always use a 1/2" seam allowance) and about 7" long. I stitched together the pieces (2 for each handle) with right sides facing and turned them right side out, pressed them, and then top stitched them. I then placed them about where I wanted them to go in the bag and just started pinning everything (tabs,with the bamboo handles in place, and lining). Mine was to thick to fit through my sewing maching so I just hand stitched it together using a back stitch. But hey if you can stitch it together with your sewing machine, well then, I'm very jealous of you! :-)
After that just call it a day and your ready to sport you new bag.
If you need more in depth detail of how to do the bag you can visit Creative Juice via DIY Network. They use corduroy pants but you can really do it with ANY pants.
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