The other day I had a great idea for a denim purse. Several years ago I'd made a purse out of an old pair of pants, and I thought it was about time to try it again. My first purse was all done by hand, so with a machine, I knew there would almost definitely be an improvement. The only kicker was the fact that I don't have any pants that I could cut up. A thrift store run was in order. I talked Puese into walking to our closest one, with me. I was lucky enough to find two pair of pants that drew inspiration from me. They also would make for two sufficiently different purses. Yesterday I set out to make the yellow one, and judging by the response I've had within my own household, I succeeded. Then again, I live with boys. 
1st) I started by cutting the legs off of the pants. I measured from the top of the pants down the front to the crotch seam. Then I measured an inch longer than that around the back and cut.
2nd) From the fabric of one of the pant legs I cut out a bottom for the purse. I chose a shape that was long but still rounded. I measured the shape out with my ruler and rounded it with my retainer case (yes, I wear a retainer still). 
3rd) I pinned the bottom I made in step 2, to the inside of the bottom of the pants. Had to be careful to make sure the pockets were out of the way, so I didn't sew them into the seam I was going to make. The piece I made was considerably smaller so that the fabric of the purse would bunch and gather. The picture is about half way through pinning. 
4th) I stitched the bottom to the purse. It was easiest to sew with the flat of the bottom piece up. The gathers will be down so the presser foot doesn't get stuck on them. The gathers aren't perfectly spaced, but at least they are evenly distributed around the circumference of the bottom.
5th) I didn't take a picture of it, but I did make a lining from an old bed sheet I have used for lining things in the past. I laid the purse as flat as I could on top of the fabric, with the bottom above the fold. Then I traced a bit larger than the purse and cut in the same general shape. I stitched the sides of the new lining together, rounding out the bottom corners a bit.
6th) Next, I pinned the lining to the inside of the purse. With the lining inside out, and the purse inside out, I hand-stitched 3/4 of the lining to the inside of the purse. Before I did the last quarter of the lining, I flipped the purse through the hole in the lining so that the whole thing was the right side out. then I hand-stitched the last bit closed.
7th) I had some trouble developing the strap. Had to try a few different things and did my first seam ripping of the project. And the second, and the third. Finally, I decided against a long cross body strap (partly because I was running out of fabric) and chose to make this a shoulder bag. From the pant leg I cut a 6in wide strip of fabric that would fit over the shoulder. I pinned the edges together, and stitched those. Again; there's no picture of it's making.
8th) After flipping the strap right side out, I hemmed the ends shut so there were no loose ends and then stitched each end to the purse. Lining the center of the strap with the centers of each of the sides.
9th) I opted to use the fabric I was going to use for the cross-body strap as a drawstring instead. I had originally envisioned the purse with a drawstring, but not exactly like this. I folded each side 1/4 of the way across and zigzag stitched them down. (I had stitched the edges together, but I could not pull it right-side out afterwords, so gave up. The fabric was too thick). I then hand stitched the folds together to make the cord. (It wouldn't have been strong enough of a stitch for a handle, but will work fine a drawstring)
10th) The bit that the cord runs through is simply an old hem I cut off and then stitched through the middle after having wrapped it around each side of the hems. I stitched it closed after running the cord through the belt loops of the pants/purse. Then it was done.
I will be taking more pictures of the purse to better show it's actual color. It's more the bright yellow in all the above pictures with natural light, and less the neon bright yellow of the finished product pictures (not natural lighting . Either way; it's up on Etsy for sale because I've no need for another purse. But I wanted to be creative. I can't wait to see how the purple pants may come out.
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