Recycled leather belt strap and DIY Denim Handbag

I’m not a bag pattern writer and I’ve only made a handful of bags myself so the tutorial here is very much meant as an inspiration piece rather than a proper pattern.

Materials Used – DIY Denim Handbag

– pockets from old jeans – scrap fabric – cotton fabric – zipper – old belt – pleather

Step 1: Outer Bag Panels

I started by sewing one jeans pocket above the other to form one half of the front of my bag.

I then made the second half of the front of the bag using another pocket and some of my fabric scraps. I was trying to end up with the two halves the same height.

I used firm iron-on interfacing on the wrong side of each panel. I left a gap around the edges for my joining seams.

Step 2: Interfacing (optional)

Step 3: Machine Embroidery

I set my stitch length to 4.5 to try to vaguely mimic a hand stitching or sashiko sort of a look without actually having to do the hand stitching!

Step 4: Bag Lining

I had a couple of fat quarters (quarter of a metre fabric cut) of stripy white and yellow fabric that I used for my bag lining.

I didn’t do any precise measuring for this I just laid my front panels on top of my lining fabric and cut two same sized pieces.

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