If you're fond of making old jeans into cutoffs or reconstructing them into skirts, then you know that when you're done, you end up with the bottoms of pant legs lying around. I decided to take the bottom of a pair of jeans and turn it into a purse!



It's about as easy as you can get, since the side seams are already sewn, and the bottom (which becomes the top of the purse) is already hemmed. Basically, all you need to do is sew up the one raw edge (which becomes the bottom of the purse), add a handle, and decorate! I added a couple of other pieces of denim, frayed slightly to give a worn effect, and a collection of buttons as decoration, all sewn on by hand with contrasting thread. For the handle, I used an old belt that I wore as a kid, which was basically just cotton webbing with a sliding buckle that I left on because I thought it looked fun --- but you could use almost anything.

Hi all --- first post here.

I made a bunch of these bags a few years ago as Christmas gifts for family & friends. I used silk (cut-up silk blouses from the used clothing store!) and filled them with a mixture of lentils and lavender. I was inspired by one that my grandmother had received as a gift, although hers was filled entirely with lavender. I kept a couple for myself, of course, and I've had them for over 5 years and never had a problem with bugs...

A few random thoughts:

The weight of the lentils (or rice) is reallly nice to just lay across your forehead or over your eyes if you have a headache --- I rarely heat or chill mine, but the silk feels cool even at room temperature.

You might want to be careful about putting cinnamon, esp. of the ground variety, into the bags --- for one, it can stain fabric, and it's also a skin irritant, so don't use it in bags that you're going to put across your eyes or on your face.

If you use silk, use a couple of layers of it in the bag, so that the powder (lavender gets crushed up over time) doesn't seep out.