What a mess! Covered in lint and little threads with pins all over, this doesn't look like much. But, I love it already!This bag to be was once a pair of old, but never worn, corduroy 'jeans'. Actually, I am just using the top part because the legs (and the zipper) already became a skirt. A while back I made a bag, actually two bags out of a pair of corduroy carpenter shorts. I loved all of the fun little pockets. For this one, made out of traditional five pocket jeans, I wanted to make use of the pockets, but I did not want it to look like I just put a seam at the bottom and added some straps. Instead, I carefully took off the waistband and split the center front. I then added a piece of fabric from the legs and made a tube. Then I rotated the tube until I found just the right configuration of pockets.
Upon removing the waistband, it became clear that the rivet for the front 'hand' pocket was too close to the edge for a proper fold-over and hem, so I added a little scrap along part of the top edge. I also wanted to use only one original front and one back pocket, but thought that the bag needed more pockets than that, so I created one out of what was left of one of the legs. In order to make it look like it belonged I wound a length of the original yellow thread around an old spool and machine - sewed the pocket on.
The next step is to finish making the shoulder straps out of the waistband. This will be done by hand with brown cotton embroidery thread. I think i will also replace the button with its company logo with one from our collection of vintage buttons.
